Sage Celimene-Rowell has been a Chicago Public School teacher for 15 years, including the first five years at Clara Barton Elementary School in the Auburn Gresham community on the Far South Side.
Teaching, she said, "is very challenging and very rewarding."
Celimene-Rowell identified as "gender-fluid or gender-queer" in the 1970s and 1980s, and started a classical transition in May 2012. She said the past three school-years "have been wonderful around the children because I think being open about a lot of gender identities allows students to also express themselves in ways they might not have before."
To that, she has received numerous letters from students, stating how much they support her. And they also have opened up about their families"and I think that's been the most surprising," she said.
"In the classroom, I know that I create a safe, more inclusive environmentand both kids and parents have told me that," said Celimene-Rowell, who now teaches four classes with about 30 students in each. "Teaching is wonderful. Teaching also is difficult to limit myself to the current subject; I find that there is so much more that I would like to be teaching, [such as] inclusion, acceptance, and those kind of [subjects]. Sure, math and science are wonderful and important, but we have more pressing issues."
Celimene-Rowell noted that there was "a lot of progress made" in the 1960s and 1970s toward LGBT rights, "but [that progress] got turned around in the 1980s and 1990s, especially with the HIV epidemic." Over the past five years or so, "I think the newer generation has sort of rebelled against gender roles and gender expectations in a way that has made all of society more open to accepting different gender expressions."
Celimene-Rowell is often representing the Center on various trans issues, and she is actively involved in the TQI communities of trans, queer and intersex.
"I came to the Center [years ago] looking for support, normal interactions with other people where I didn't have to talk about my history; we could, instead, just talk about movies, TV shows, cooking, [or general topics] without having to explain that I'm trans, etc.," she said.
She was offered the Center post shortly thereafter.
"I enjoy the work [at the Center], though there definitely is work that needs to be done to help make the Center more inclusive of the TQI communities, especially when it comes to race and poverty issuesand that's something that all LGBT centers face," she said. "I'm excited to bring the resources we have available here and match them to the needs of our more vulnerable community members."
Celimene-Rowell said the biggest issue facing the trans community is simple, suicide and murder.
"I think that's where my volunteer work here at the Center and [my teaching] come together because I do believe that if we used our public education system to help educate society we would see less suicides," she said. "Schools have such a potential to destigmatize gender identity and gender expressions, which I think would [help] curtail suicides very quickly."
THE STATS
Age: "Am doing laps between 0 and 40; currently 31"
Neighborhood: Hyde Park
Orientation: "Irrelevant"
Relationship status: Married to Catherine Celimene, a life coach
Gender: "Genderful transsexual"
Job title: CPS middle school teacher
Volunteer title: Trans Program Liaison at Center on Halsted
Hobbies: Cooking, health & fitness, traveling and advocacy
Favorite TV show: Fringe
Favorite movie: Breakfast on Pluto
Little-known fact: "I have two tattoos: a red star and a black panther."