Julia Lynn Marsh

Julia Lynn Marsh

Julia Lynn Marsh is a male-to-female transgender activist

About

Julia Lynn Marsh is a "(stage manager) is a writer, performer, and comedian working in Detroit and New York City. She has worked in many theatrical capacities for companies such as The Ringwald Theatre, The Detroit Opera House, The Matrix Theater, and Theater Row. She has a deep love for astronomy as well as for the marriage of art and science."

Transgender Day of Visibility

An early reference to Transgender Day of Visibility was in 2009 was posted at a blog titled "A Book Without A Cover", which "was created as a way to practice writing and express varied interests, including, women’s justice, radical women of color, gender, politics (domestic & international), activism, writing, people of color, feminism, language, contests, opinions and ideas, culture, music, etc."

"March 31st at Cafe 1923, Transgender Detroit, Transgender Michigan, and Hamtramck’s GLBT and ally community will be hosting Transgender Day of Visibility.!

With multiple events happening around the state tomorrow, we’re proud to be hosting an interview of local transgender activist Julia Lynn Marsh! Julia will be sharing her story with Richard Lee Sparks at Cafe 1923 at 7 PM...

Rachel Crandall was the executive director of Transgender Michigan at the time.

Chicago Tribune Profile

Article published November 7, 2005 (and updated August 22, 2021) at the Chicago Tribune titled "Lost in transition":

"Julia Lynn Marsh is smoking a cigarette and drinking hot chocolate at a Lincoln Park cafe, oblivious to the people at the next table who keep looking over as she discusses her transition from male to female.

The 18-year-old is used to explaining herself to people who have questions about who–or, if someone’s asking more rudely, what–she is. She’s matter-of-fact in her answer: She’s a transgender person who’s working to change her appearance to match how she feels inside.

“I don’t believe that I’m a woman trapped in a man’s body,” said Marsh, who was born a man. “I’m a woman, and I’ve always been a woman. My body just developed differently, and I’m taking medical steps to fix that.”

Transgender people–those whose biological sex does not match the gender they feel themselves to be–are becoming more visible in pop culture, on college campuses and in struggles for legal rights.

On TV, the Sundance Channel is wrapping up an eight-part documentary series called “Transgeneration” on Tuesday that follows four transgender college students as they deal with school, relationships, medical transitions and family acceptance.

Oprah has devoted several shows to transgender topics. In September, the show featured two sets of identical twins dealing with one twin switching genders.

“Transamerica,” a film starring Felicity Huffman of “Desperate Housewives” as a closeted transsexual woman who was born a man, has been getting buzz at film festivals this fall.

“I think [transgender] is the sexual orientation of the new millennium,” said Dr. Rob Garofolo, who works with transgender youth at Howard Brown’s Broadway Youth Center in Lakeview. In his medical practice, he’s seeing more young people who are comfortable questioning their gender. He’s also seeing more interest in gender identity and transgender issues.

The term transgender covers a range of gender expression: transsexuals who medically alter their bodies to change their gender, trans men who were born female and now live as men, trans women who were born male and live as female, and even blurrier terms like “genderqueer” that some young people use to identify themselves.

On some college campuses, students are pushing for transgender rights, including gender-neutral bathrooms and housing. More schools are adding policies to protect gender identity; this year, the University of Illinois added it to its non-discrimination policy.

It’s difficult to know how many people identify as transgender, because some chose to live a closeted life, for fear of discrimination or harassment, experts say.

Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, estimates that less than 1 percent of the population are transsexuals. The number of transgender people who do not undergo hormone treatments or surgery is much higher but not quantifiable, Keisling said.

Being “out” as a transgender person carries some significant risks, including discrimination, taunting, violence and hate crimes, said Stevie Conlon, a transgender woman who runs the Chicago Gender Society. The group, which has about 160 members, is a social organization for transgender people.

“There’s still a kind of shock–a very visible reaction–when people realize they’re talking to a trans person,” Conlon said. Conlon believes pop culture portrayals of trans people–including “Transgenerations” and “Transamerica”–are small steps forward because they show transgender people as complex human beings, not crude stereotypes. Even crime shows such as “Without a Trace” or “CSI” that feature transgender characters are doing some good by exposing the public to trans people, she said.

“We’re just people–we’re not some one-dimensional sideshow,” she said.

Marsh says that kind of recognition is all she wants–the chance to be something more than a transsexual.

“I’d just like people to get to know me for me and not my transsexuality,” she said.

She’d also like to get a good job, something she says has been impossible so far. She said she typically applies for a job, gets an offer and then when the employer sees her state ID with a male name and photograph, she loses the job, she said.

Illinois passed a law this year making it illegal to discriminate against people based on their gender identity.

Marsh expects her difficulties to ease when she completes her transition. She plans to change her name, continue hormone therapy, have cosmetic surgery to shave her Adam’s apple and undergo sex-reassignment surgery, for which she’s saving $200 a month. Surgery costs at least $100,000 and is typically not covered by insurance–a reason few transsexuals have it. “There’s a point where you work on the changes, and there’s a point where you just start living it,” Marsh said.

Casey Schwartz, a 25-year-old Chicagoan who was born female, has been living as a male for six years.

Schwartz, who leads a support group for transgender youth called Trans Youth Resources and Advocacy at Broadway Youth Center, says he hasn’t faced serious problems as a transgender man, and many people don’t know he’s trans if he doesn’t tell them.

But there have been smaller difficulties along the way.

He has not been able to change his birth certificate to identify him as male, since Illinois requires sex-reassignment surgery before altering a birth certificate.

Schwartz says he’s comfortable with his body the way it is, and he’s angry that state regulations seem to say his gender is illegitimate.

“Changing your gender isn’t necessarily about changing your genitalia,” Schwartz said. “It’s not about that at all.”

Vigil for victims

On Nov. 20, Illinois Gender Advocates and Transgender Youth Resources and Advocacy (TYRA) are sponsoring a candlelight vigil to remember transgender victims of hate crimes and violence. The Day of Rememberance is marked around the country that day; Chicago’s vigil will take place at Halsted and Roscoe at 5 p.m. For information, go to www.gender.org/remember/day