[News/People] [IN, USA] Changing gender not easy for local resident

[Stephanie Stevens]

Journal and Courier, IN, USA


Changing gender not easy for local resident

10:54 PM, Jun 30, 2012

Written by Eric Weddle


[Video <http://www.jconline.com/videonetwork/1712271711001/Christina-Batie-and-being-transgender>
: Christina Batie and being transgender: Christina Batie talks about
being transgender and her life.]

[Photo <http://bit.ly/O6kOR0> : Christina Batie, a transgender person,
is in the process of going through the sex reassignment surgery
protocol. Here, Jesse Knoth, owner of Designing Length Salon in
Lafayette, applies makeup to Batie. By Michael Heinz/Journal &
Courier]

Choosing the right dress, one that accentuates beauty and instills
confidence, can be a challenge for some women.

Christina Nicole Batie has sought out that perfect dress, preferably
silver, but instead of slipping into a size 13 in a department store’s
dressing room, Batie eyeballs the outfit, holds it up, feels the
fabric and makes a calculated guess.

“I don’t try clothes on at stores because I don’t know what people
will do, I don’t know what will happen,” Batie said. “I’ve gotten good
at looking at something and knowing it will fit.

“I remember when I first moved to Lafayette, I tried a dress on in a
store and I was chased out of there. I don’t want that to happen
again.”

Batie is a man. Well, at least, biologically.

Since childhood, the 5-foot, 8-inch raven-haired Batie has felt
trapped in someone else’s body and forced to conform into what family,
schoolmates, the Bible and even Batie herself expected. After nearly
20 years of trying to hide what seemed inevitable, Batie, born as
Christopher Laurence, came out as a transgender woman in 2010 and now
lives life as a woman in Lafayette. That means Batie, 25, an aspiring
film director and Baptist, believes somehow after conception the
switch inside the brain to determine gender identity was flipped the
opposite direction.

Now, Batie is undergoing a transition to physically become a woman to
match the gender within.

It is a process that will take years because of the immense cost and
oversight from a psychologist. It includes hormone replacement
therapy, voice coaching, electrolysis and eventually a sex
reassignment surgery. It also will lift Batie further into the eye of
a society that has yet to fully understand or pass laws to protect
individuals whose gender is not clear cut. And it will force her
family members to accept their son and brother, “Chris,” as a woman.

“If I had the surgery, which I am going to one day when I can raise
the money, it would make me feel more confident out in public, and it
would make me feel more comfortable. It would give me a sense of
completion,” Batie said recently. “I feel like I am a broken puzzle
right now that needs all these pieces to fit together to make a
beautiful picture, make me a beautiful person.

“I have a picture in my head of what I need to be, and I need those
certain pieces to get right down in there and make myself feel like a
completed puzzle.”

Batie, who as a child secretly cross-dressed, projects a radiant calm
and positive mindset whether discussing a film or recounting a
difficult life journey, such as a failed attempt at Bible college
before she came to realize she has what psychologists call gender
identity disorder.

“When someone is their self, finally allowed to be who they are, that
is when their true passion comes out,” she said.

Growing awareness

Batie is transitioning as trans issues and people slowly become
strands of mainstream awareness. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender, or LGBT, issues have inched forward in recent years, from
the inclusion in 2009 federal hate crime laws to President Barack
Obama voicing his support of same sex marriage. At the same time, a
string of state constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage —
Indiana has started the process — have been approved, and there
appears to be little interest in Congress to extend civil rights
protections to LGBT people.

Yet, trans people are becoming more prominent in the public eye.

Last fall Chaz Bono <http://chazbono.net/> , the biological daughter
of singer Cher, was a competitor on the popular television program
“Dancing With the Stars.” Bono underwent female-to-male gender
transition and legally changed his gender to male in 2010.

Beauty contestant Jenna Talackova <http://jennatalackova.ca/> rocked
the pageant world when she was initially outed and then disqualified
for not being a “naturally born female.” Later the blonde was allowed
to stay in the competition and was awarded the title of Miss
Congeniality in the Miss Universe Canada pageant in May.

Also in June, Tom Gabel
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Jane_Grace> , singer of the punk
band Against Me!, announced in a Rolling Stone interview he is
transitioning into a female and will remain married to his wife once
the process is complete.

Understanding transgender is not easy, says Pride Lafayette
<http://www.pridelafayette.org/> president Ashley Smith.

The term, Smith said, is an umbrella for many people who do not
identify as biological men and women and whose gender identity can
span the spectrum as fully male or female and points in between.

Within that umbrella, there is the transgender man — a female who
identifies as a man — and transgender woman — a male who identifies as
a woman, such as Batie.

Unknown factors

Trans and gay are not synonyms, either, Smith said, and drag queens,
typically men who portray famous women in performance, are not
transgender.

“Everyone has a gender identity, and most of the time it matches up
with their assigned sex, but for the trans person, it does not match
up with their biology,” said Jean Capler
<http://www.indiana.edu/~glbt/jean-capler-3/> , an instructor at
Indiana University <http://www.indianauniversity.edu/> and private
psychotherapist who works with trans people.

“No one has determined how that gets determined in our systems. There
has been research that determines that it could be some brain
differences, or hormonal wash in utero that influences brain
development,” Capler said. “There are some people whose earliest
memories are insisting, ‘no mommy, I am a boy.’ ”

No one has figured out how many transgender people there are in the
United States, either. The U.S. Census <http://www.census.gov/> does
not conduct counts on LGBT, although other groups have tried.

“There are fewer trans than gay, lesbian and bisexuals,” Capler said.
“It is hard to get numbers, because people never come out to
themselves or the world.”

The National Center for Transgender Equality
<http://transequality.org/> estimates between 0.25 and 1.0 percent of
the population is transsexual. Applied to the current population, that
would be between 780,000 and 3 million individuals.

An analysis of other reports and surveys last year by the Williams
Institute, a think tank at UCLA Law that specializes in gender
identity and sexual law, found more than 8 million adults in the U.S.
are lesbian, gay or bisexual. In addition, there are 700,000
transgender individuals in the country, the analysis found.

Earliest memories

Batie was born in California and moved around with her mother and
siblings to Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana.

During those years, until her late teens, Batie was struggling to
understand who she really was. Her earliest memories, between 3 and 5
years, are of wanting to be a girl.

“I’d been cross-dressing since I can remember. My very earliest memory
I have is me dressing up. I couldn’t go back that far to know what age
I was. It was a dress my sister had that fit me perfectly. Me and my
sister grew up playing with each other. So, she knew.

“My mom knew, but she never looked at it as a big problem.”

As she grew older, Batie realized the secret time spent coordinating
outfits and trying on different styles was something to keep from her
mother, siblings and friends. Her younger sister began to refuse
taking part in “dress up.” To feel like herself, Batie sought time in
her room with the door locked. In West Virginia, a spot in the closet
became a hiding place for the outfits.

“It was not necessarily the clothing, but I had to feel like something
was here (chest) and something was not here (below waist),” Batie
said, using her hands. “In order for me to go to sleep at night, that
is what I had to do.

“I felt a lot more comfortable. I felt like myself.”

Internal conflict

Batie’s mother, Cindy Nieto, now claims she was unaware of Batie’s
cross-dressing until the late teen years. It’s an issue the two don’t
agree on. Yet, the relationship between the two has grown from fights
where “all hell broke loose” to near acceptance.

“I had no idea you were thinking that way, until (the teenage years),”
Nieto said of Batie, who she refers to as her son. “I had two
different jobs. There was a lot I didn’t see, a lot I didn’t know.”

Yet as Batie continued to wear the clothing — woman’s undergarments,
blouses and dresses — scrounged up within the family home, she also
played football and basketball with schoolmates. During high school in
Hammond, she became involved with a group of “troublemakers” and
eventually dropped out of high school before earning her GED.

“I did it to be more manly. I did it because growing up I knew that
was what men did,” she said of acting out during those years.

Yet throughout those years, Batie remained devoted to her Christian
faith. Even today, she is quick to quote scripture or riff on biblical
or historical topics. God continues to provide grace and mercy, she
says.

Urged by pastors who saw Batie as a future Christian leader, she
enrolled at Hyles-Anderson College <http://hylesanderson.edu/> , a
private fundamentalist Baptist school in Crown Point, to become a
minister. But Batie never graduated. After leaving the school in 2009,
Batie struggled desperately to reconcile who she was with religious
teachings and find common ground with her family.

Batie, unaware that sex reassignment surgeries were available, felt
she could not turn to God for help. At the time, she felt God would
not approve of transsexuals.

“But then, it was a realization,” she said.

Through YouTube, Batie found BarbaraCox6, a trans woman living in
Chile. The two struck up an online friendship of “girls talking about
girl things.”

“She supported me, helped me understand who I was,” Batie said.

Turning point

According to Batie, Cox has since died and the YouTube channel
removed. Batie has since found a network of people in Lafayette to
support her, including her mother.

Now, it is not uncommon for Nieto to offer makeup or clothing advice
to Batie, or take part in events organized by Pride Lafayette. The
journey of understanding for the mother of a trans child was difficult
and ugly at times, the two admit, and still can be fraught with doubt.

Nieto says “God does not make mistakes” but allows that Batie can do
what she wants as an adult. The questions of biology and faith are
unanswered for Nieto.

But one thing is certain: She wants her son to be happy.

“It has been a lot of thinking. My dad explained it to me best: Chris
is an adult. We have to understand what he is going through, we may
not like it, but that is going to be Chris,” Nieto said. “He is always
going to be Chris.”

About a year ago, Nieto experienced a turning point in accepting
Batie’s life. The two were at a hardware store, and some employees
were making fun of Batie, who was dressed as a woman. Batie doesn’t
even remember the incident, she says, because it’s not uncommon.

“It was the first time I’d ever stuck up for Chris. I just couldn’t
believe they were doing that,” Nieto said. “It blew me away that I
even said anything. I don’t know if it was the mother in me or
standing up for him because of the other reason. It was probably both.
But Chris shouldn’t have to be used to that happening.”

Batie takes hormone pills that are creating female attributes, such as
larger breasts and less body hair. A sex reassignment surgery is years
away, because of the cost, which can be upwards of $20,000, according
to media reports and consumer websites. After that, there will be
other challenges, such as the “legal transition,” that includes being
approved for a driver’s license or birth certificate that states Batie
is a female.

For now, her life in Lafayette is the happiest Batie has known. That
includes her manufacturing job in Veedersburg, where she works on the
shop floor and is accepted as a trans woman.

Changing environment

People can recognize Batie as a man and because of that, she says
there is a concern for safety. But she sees acceptance of transsexuals
growing locally. Proof of that is in last August’s OUTfest, an annual
event by Pride Lafayette. Organizers estimated 6,000 people filled
Main Street for the day. Nearly 20 years ago that amount of community
support wasn’t available.

In 1993, the Lafayette City Council
<http://www.lafayette.in.gov/council/> voted to add “sexual
orientation” to the city’s discrimination policy. Three years later
there was a failed attempt to remove it.

“There was a very decisive debate back then. But I think people have
grown a lot more tolerant and grown more understanding of the issue,”
said council president Steve Meyer. “I think it was the right thing
back then, and I think it has served us well.”

In the area’s current environment, Batie hopes others will take
advantage of not just expressing themselves, but seeking to help to
understand who they are.

“If you feel like this is who you are — come out. It doesn’t matter
what happens after that situation, you will be happier later on in
life. I love my mom, and I love my family,” she said. “But I probably
will be very miserable if I was still in the closet today with all of
them around accepting me as a male. I am a lot more happier being out
of the closet.”

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Related Links

Groups offer transsexual support, information
<http://www.jconline.com/article/20120630/NEWS/306300033>

Transsexuals have few legal remedies
<http://www.jconline.com/article/20120630/NEWS/306300032>

Purdue hires first LGBTQ director
<http://www.jconline.com/article/20120630/NEWS0501/306300031>
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