Professor lives as 'full-time' transgender woman
By Karen Hunley
The Auburn Villager
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As a polymer and fiber engineering professor, Dr. Gwynedd Thomas teaches Auburn University students about the correct composition of protective body armor. In a way, she says, this instruction is a metaphor for the protective yet false shield she carried around most of her life. Until recently, she begrudgingly accepted and portrayed her birth gender—male—so she wouldn't have to face the social repercussions.
About four years ago, Thomas decided it was worth the risk to be herself.
"There comes a point in everyone's life, often as you're approaching the end of your life, that you've got to express yourself as yourself," she says.
Thomas is in her mid-50s, and she became a "full-time" transsexual, or transgender, woman last fall. This entails dressing, speaking and expressing herself in every way possible as a woman, even though she
was born male.
"I was already aware by the time I was 3 years old that I was gender variant," Thomas says. "(Transsexuals) are the gender we say we are, we just didn't get the right body."
That may change, however, as the professor is considering gender reassignment surgery. But if this doesn't "come to pass," whether for financial or personal reasons, Thomas says she's content to continue living as a female in every other way.
"This is not about choosing sexual partners," she adds. "I am considering it because I would like to be who I should've been to the best of my ability."
A late start
When Thomas was a young boy growing up in Georgia, his mother thought allowing him to experiment with nail polish and lipstick was just innocent fun. Her attitude changed when Thomas reached a certain age, but Thomas' feminine tendencies didn't change.
He learned to repress them, however, as a '60s teen.
"Teenagers want to fit it ... you don't want to stand out like that," she says.
"It's more common for older people to transition to the gender role you feel is natural. You have more of a support system, and a young transgender doesn't have the financial base to do this."
In 2004, still expressing herself as a man, Thomas says she finally got the courage to talk to a transsexual friend about how to begin a new life. She began meeting with a therapist, who Thomas says officially identified her as a transsexual, and she began "easing into it."
She quit cutting her hair and began wearing women's shirts and slacks most everywhere, even to work. Thomas has been an AU professor since the mid-90s.
"I came to work that way for well over two years," she says.
Her androgyny became more noticeable as her hair got longer, she began wearing makeup and started hormone replacement therapy. She also got involved with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) AU student organization on campus.
At National Coming Out Day last October, she says she was the only faculty member who stood openly on campus with the LGBT students, supporting them. She was dressed completely as a woman then, and hasn't looked back.
"Our department head, at first, seemed uncomfortable with it ... but he has been supportive," Thomas says, adding that he offered to help her change business cards, name plates and even explain her decision to faculty.
As of last December she would no longer be known as Howard—her birth name and father's name—but Gwynedd, pronounced "Gwyneth."
"This name is Welsh, and I wanted to remain with my family heritage but wanted to express myself in a feminine way," she says.
'An unusual female professor'
When classes began in January, Thomas taught for the first time with her new name and full-feminine attire.
"I was petrified," she says. "But I had several students that didn't know I was transgender at all. Some realized there was something different about me, but they were incredibly polite and accepting."
Thomas says graduate students and faculty seemed equally accepting, though some engineering students who didn't have her as a professor were wary. Until they got to know her, she says.
"I am a lot better me this way than the other way ... more approachable and natural," Thomas says.
And you won't find her wearing feather boas, fishnet stockings or other "silly stuff" splashed all over TV and movies to portray transsexuals, she says. Thomas dons professional clothing every day in classes and casual women's clothing otherwise.
"I am a just a female professor—a really unusual female professor," she continues. "But I am also unusual for what I do in my research and the things I teach. That's how I want to be known—for what I do, not what I am."
Is it worth it?
Being "different" takes on new meaning for transsexuals, but it's worse to try and ignore your natural feelings, Thomas says.
"It's not worth it not to express myself this way," she adds. "You can never be exactly what you should have been born as, but you can be close enough so that you feel comfortable and make others comfortable."
She explains that the more often transsexuals "pass" as their "true" gender, the more at ease others are around them.
There are people who don't believe her and don't respect her decisions, but she hasn't had any major problems, Thomas says.
"People in Auburn, on this campus and the town in general, have been very kind and accepting overall," she says.
Some family members have accepted Thomas' new identity as well, including her natural son, who lives with her, and her brother.
Her mother, however, chooses not to acknowledge Thomas as a woman and still calls her Howard. Her father felt the same way before he passed away a few years ago.
"Not expressing yourself causes lots of psychological problems," she says. "You don't like being who and what you are."
Thomas says she is very comfortable with herself now, and she enjoys "normal" feminine activities like grocery shopping, cooking and decorating her home. She also enjoys her relationship with God.
"I very much believe in God ... He made us for other purposes other than procreation," Thomas says. "If I can't procreate this way, I can create other things that serve God and help people, and that's what I've dedicated myself to."
