MOLLY VANDENBERG
Staff Writer
YouTube has become a platform for many activists to share their voice and help others. YouTuber Chase Ross spoke at an event in McEwen Hall on Feb. 27 on the importance of representation and the media when it comes to being transgender. This event was hosted by Fredonia’s Pride Alliance.
Ross introduced his event by talking about his start on YouTube and the beginnings of his path toward transitioning. He’s been on YouTube since 2006. In the late 2000s, there was little to no conversation ongoing about the transgender community in the internet world.
Ross talked about trans representation in TV shows, movies and in the YouTube community.
“I think [YouTube] is a great place where people are able to express themselves and talk about their lives,” said Ross on how the website is beneficial for the trans community.
While Ross brings up the fact that Caitlyn Jenner isn’t the most liked person in the LGBTQ community, her coming out in 2015 was a huge milestone. For the first time in history, the average person could say that they at least knew of a trans person now.
“The place that we were at, is somewhere I thought we would never be,” said Ross.
There was also the discussion of trans characters in the media, such as in TV shows like “Degrassi,” “Orange is The New Black” and “Shameless.” There has been an overall lacking of trans men in TV shows and movies.
A lot of TV shows and movies have also focused on the negative aspect of being trans, when there is actually so much more depth that goes along to these kinds of characters and people as a whole.
There is also the whole ongoing discussion of whether or not it’s okay for a cis person to play a transgender person in the media. There is no perfect answer yet to this question.
Parker Leounis, a senior women and gender studies major and the president of Pride Alliance, believes that people like Ross are very beneficial to the community.
“Chase is important . . . because there isn’t a lot of trans masculine representation in the media, so a lot of transmasculine people have a hard time relating to people like them,” said Leounis. “It’s also good to have people that you could ask specific questions about being trans masculine, whether it’s about identity, transitioning, or anything else.”
Ross’ YouTube channel is “uppercaseCHASE1” where he currently has almost 130,000 subscribers. Anyone can access his videos for free.
Big steps have been made regarding positive change for the trans community, but there’s always room for improvement.
“We definitely have made some big steps, especially on this campus. We have gender neutral bathrooms in almost every building, which is more important than some people might think,” said Leounis. “We even got the attention of the president so we could put a gender neutral bathroom in Mason. We also have moved forward with our Chosen Names Program that lets people change their names on their FREDCards and their school emails.”
“What I hope for the future is that the topic of transgender is more normalized, so people don’t have to seek this information out for themselves on their own,” Leounis continued.