Julian Gloover is my favorite guest speaker we have had so far. I left our class yesterday feeling extremely happy and productive. His energy and passion for what he is writing about really transforms the discussion. It was super cool to have the author present in the room after reading his article prior to his arrival. The ability to ask him questions, offer criticism, and highlight areas of the article was gratifying and it helped dive into the material in a deeper sense. As we started to talk about his article, I asked about transnormativity, something I had never heard of or thought about. I learned that the media has the ability to influence audiences by showing what constitutes as trans and what doesn’t. This related to gatekeeping, in having the ability to keep certain parts of the trans community out of the picture. He also talked about the impact of media and how they define what is human and nonhuman in terms of gender. This is all tied to the systemic structures of society that was SET UP to be this way. He explained the term “sexual panic,” which was also something I was unaware of, to describe a situation where an individual feels as if they are experiencing intentional misrepresentation. At the end of class, we did the most masculine to most feminine activity. This was eye opening because I found myself to be right next to the boys (the last girl that was towards the masculine side). I am definitely not very feminine, but I do have feminine qualities. But this raises the question of what are feminine qualities and masculine qualities? Who told us that in order to be masculine, you had to be strong or an athlete or a provider? Why do females have to be caring and girly? All these questions were popping into my head as we were doing the activity and Julian was simply spitting facts. He talked about masculinity being directly tied to power structures and I agree 100%. At the end of his article, he writes, “I hope that this article makes clear that everyone else can be free only when transgender women of color—especially black transgender women—are free.” This is absolutely beautifully written, and I loved reading it because it highlights the importance of humanity and that society has been set up to discriminate, instead of encourage people to be who they are.