I want equal rights for transgender individuals for the future, because I don’t want others to have to feel the way I did growing up, or even the way I feel on a day to day basis.

Haleigh is a member of the campus organizing team.

Hey, my name is Haleigh Robbins, I’m 18, I’m attending the University of Cincinnati for some undeclared major, and I’m transgendered. I was more or less totally closeted, for both my sexual orientation and gender, until senior year of high school, and even then you wouldn’t have really known how different I was. College offered me an opportunity to begin anew, to be myself. So, I started to learn who I truly am and I got introduced to the LGBTQ community at UC.

First things first, the gay and queer community is amazing! I never knew there were so many people who could like me for me and it was so refreshing to make that discovery. This community is the motivation for my activism, which, admittedly, only began this past year. I joined GenderBloc, the radical queer activist group on campus, and the members took me in, showed me the ropes, and prepared me for years of service to the group. The senior members got me ready to be a leader of the organization, the president even, and I can’t begin to express the excitement and anticipation I have for the coming school year.

GenderBloc is a queer activist group, with a focus on transgender issues. Our goal as an organization is to promote and ensure equality for people of all genders and gender expressions. It’s incredibly important that information about our cause is available to the next generation so that they can contribute to the ongoing struggle for equal rights. Only in this way can we guarantee that future generations are free to be themselves, without fear of prejudice and persecution. I want this for our future, because I don’t want others to have to feel the way I did growing up, or even the way I feel on a day to day basis. The work we are conducting through Advocates for Youth will help advance this cause and that’s why I’m so honored to be a part of the group.