Journalism Samples I am one of two editors-in-chief of my school’s newspaper. I have attached two examples of my work. Experiences with articles like these have spurred my interest in pursuing journalism in college and perhaps beyond.
1) “Moving Forward: Bethesda Women Discuss Election Results” (December 2016)
After this year’s presidential election, I organized and moderated a roundtable discussion about local women’s reactions to the election. I selected four women who supported Secretary Clinton, four who supported President-elect Trump, and one who supported neither major candidate to participate. My article describes this experience.
2) “His Story: Breaking Down Binaries and Boundaries by Just Being Himself” (December 2015) I collaborated with a co-editor to write and design the layout for this feature story
about a student who recently transitioned from female to male. I wrote the introduction and the conclusion as well as the following sections: “‘I Came Out to my Mom Over a Bowl of Mac n’ Cheese,’” “Reactions: the Good and the Bad,” “Support from Spectrum,” “A Less Progressive B-CC, as Remembered by Zo Thorpe,” and “The Athletics Dilemma.” Thank you for your time! Zoe Nuechterlein Editor-in-Chief of The Tattler (2016-2017), Feature Editor (2015-2016), Feature, Style, and Opinion Writer (2013-2015)
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December 2016
Moving Foward: Bethesda Women Discuss Election Results By Zoe Nuechterlein Following this year’s presidential election, a torrent of anti-Trump posts flooded B-CC students’ newsfeeds. Many students emphasized their sorrow for women, often referencing President-elect Trump’s “Miss Piggy” and “Grab Her” comments. But in reality, this election wasn’t a man-versus-woman battle. In fact, according to exit polls, 53% of white female voters supported Trump. Additionally, the president-elect won more than a quarter of the Hispanic female vote. Even in deep blue Montgomery County, some women celebrated Trump’s victory. On November 17, The Tattler held a roundtable to find out what motivated women’s votes. The participants included four women who supported Clinton, four women who supported Trump, and one woman who supported neither. The speakers ranged in age from 17 to 74 and represented multiple races and backgrounds. Clinton Supporters The Clinton backers generally cited women’s rights as key to their support. Jennifer Stein, a B-CC mom and attorney, called Clinton “a champion for women.” Eliane Nieder, a B-CC senior, mentioned Clinton’s support for reproductive rights. Clinton’s experience in government was also important to these women. Kecia Brown, a B-CC mom with a science background, said, “I wouldn’t say [Secretary Clinton was] the [ideal] candidate, but I thought she was our most experienced person...she was very deserving.” Maeva Marcus, a B-CC grandmother who worked at the Supreme Court for 30 years, explained, “I’ve learned over the years that politics is not personal; you have to look out for the country at large. I voted for Hillary Clinton because I thought she was the most qualified candidate for president in a very long time.” Fear of a Trump administration further motivated these women. Brown explained: “When you’re a leader of the United States, you’re not just a leader of this country—you’re a leader internationally,” she said. “I was concerned that the tone that Donald Trump was setting was very harsh.” Trump Supporters Two of the women who supported Trump, Cecelia Skalka and Mellina Soheili, own small businesses. Soheili cited her frustrations with small-business regulation under President Obama: “It was sort of a reflection: ‘Are we going to get the same Obama past eight years with Hillary Clinton?’” she recalled. “I had to look at Donald Trump for a new change.” “I support gay marriage, I support women’s rights to choose, but I voted for Donald Trump,” Skalka, a B-CC mom, said after detailing her own struggles with her business. “It was a very hard decision. Most of us probably cannot afford to stay in his hotel—but at least he understands [business].” These Republicans also appreciated Trump’s outsider status. Liz Matory, who ran for Congress in Maryland’s Eighth District, confirmed, “I saw the system as extremely broken.” Gail Weiss agreed: “I’ve absolutely, enthusiastically voted for Donald Trump; he was the last non-professional politician left standing,” she said. “I think everyone in this room can agree to some degree or another that
especially nationally, our politics are kind of a mess.” “Our political figures, after a long time, feel very comfortable and they really are not there [as] civil servants. They work with the lobbyists and they forget about their constituents,” Soheili continued. “And I like Donald Trump because he was out of the box.” The Independent Sepideh Keyvanshad, a B-CC mom and a foreign service officer, did not vote for either candidate. She describes herself as “very much an Independent.” She originally supported Senator Bernie Sanders in the primaries. “When he lost, I frankly mourned at that time,” she said. She cited fear of both candidates as part of her decision. “I was scared to death that [Clinton] would take us to another war,” Keyvanshad said. “And I could not bring myself to vote for Donald Trump because…I took him at his word in terms of what he was saying he was going to do to people.”
Living as a Trump Supporter in a Sea of Democrats The four Trump supporters reported that their support had been met with shock and anger. Matory, who is half African-American and half Filipino, recounted, “On a bus, someone said ‘oh, you better support Hillary Clinton!’ and I said ‘oh, well, funny, I’m supporting Donald Trump,’ and all of a sudden I’m considered a racist, a homophobe, and a xenophobe.” Weiss, who is Jewish, wears both a GOP pin and a US-Israel flag pin on her jacket. “I have had more than one person say to me, ‘Aren’t you afraid to wear those pins in public around here?’” she reported. “Think about what that means. Think about what it means to not be able to express your
political point of view freely. That’s not what this country is supposed to be about.” Weiss added: “I still don’t know if I’ll put a [Trump] bumper sticker on my car,” mentioning vandalism concerns. Soheili, a Muslim who moved from Iran, fought the notion that all Muslim women should fear President-elect Trump. “I come from a country that went [through] the Islamic Revolution, so [I’ve seen] how women are suffering,” she said. “ [Trump] said that we need to take every single [measure] possible to protect our citizens. I want the President of the United States to have that level of greatness and courage to protect me as somebody who has witnessed so many things that happened to women [in Iran.]” On Trump’s Comments About Women The Tattler also asked the participants to address President-elect Trump’s comments about women, including his notorious remarks in the Access Hollywood tape. “That’s a hot-mic issue if anything,” Matory said, adding that Trump was “a private citizen” engaged in “locker-room conversation.” “I don’t think it’s about what President-elect Trump has said for himself and his actions; it’s about the effect that it’s had,” Nieder responded. “I’ve seen this younger generation that’s looking up to our leaders and listening to what they’ve said, and it has had an effect.” Some Republicans charged that many Democrats are too willing to excuse Bill Clinton’s controversial treat-
Left to right: Eliane Nieder, Jennifer Stein, Liz Matory
Left to right: Cecelia Skalka, Kecia Brown, Maeva Marcus
Left to right: Gail Weiss, Mellina Soheili, Sepideh Keyvanshad
Photo by Victoria Toth ment of women. But Brown explained that the Lewinsky scandal reinforced her opposition to Trump: “After Monica Lewinsky, there was a lot more sexism in the workplace…because it was tacitly okay,” she said. “That’s why I don’t agree with someone who is in leadership right now who is making these statements—it is not okay.” Soheili countered: “I’d say that I love to look at a man who has a healthy appetite about women, who is able to comment that a woman is beautiful, is sexy—what has happened? We have to always be politically correct?” “This is a pattern of objectification of women,” Stein replied. “[President-elect Trump is] a terrible role model for boys and girls. Boys think this is okay and girls think that they’re not worth anything.” As the women on both sides nodded along, Keyvanshad—the Independent—added: “I think for both Republicans and Democrats, the response [to their candidates’ respective issues] has been ‘yes [that was wrong], but let me explain it to you, let me justify it for you.’ As we continue to say ‘it’s wrong, but,’ I think this is where we’re not going to move forward,” she argued. “I think both sides have to say, ‘Yes, that was wrong,’ and no ‘but’s.” Discussion Reflections Emotions were still raw the week after the election. But despite some raised voices, the two sides retained a mutual respect for most of the discussion. Nonetheless, Stein, an avid Clinton supporter, came away shocked by what the other side had said. “The discussion surprised me,” said Stein about what other panelists had to say about Trump’s comments about women. “I tried to stay cool,” but “[I] had ‘had it’.” Others left with a generally positive outlook. “This discussion helped to quell some of my personal anger,” Brown said. “I hadn’t had much exposure to the Republican opinions of Bethesda prior to this event,” added Erin Devenney, a B-CC senior and audience member. “[The event] helped me to better understand what Trump’s win means for both sides.” Weiss strove for unity after the event: “If the other ladies would be interested in meeting periodically for coffee, I would be interested in that,” she proposed. “It was really a pleasure...to be given an opportunity to express my thoughts about some really important issues in our country, and to hear what everyone else was thinking and feeling,” Keyvanshad reflected. “In my mind, we were not there to change each other’s minds, or to rehash the arguments for our candidates leading to the elections, but to sit down together, have faces attached to people and positions with which we agree or disagree, and together acknowledge where we are in our country, and jointly find a way forward.”
Montgomery County’s Longest Running School Newspaper
Volume 89 Issue 3
The Tattler
December 2015
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School 4301 East-West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814
His Story
Camern Pinkus on Being Transgender at B-CC By Zoe Nuechterlein and Maia Eskin
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urrounded by a crowd of friends, Camern stood out from the others gathered in the art atrium for lunch, and not just because he is one of the only openly transgender students at B-CC. He donned thick eyeliner, a splatter-painted sweatshirt, and a gray beanie. But it was
his smile, exuding a self-confidence rare among teenagers, that set him apart. Camern, a junior, wasn’t always this secure. He spent the first sixteen years of his life as Ana Pinkus, whom he describes as “a very shy person who would kinda let people walk all over her.” “I do think of [Ana and Camern] as two different people,” he explained in an
Inside this Edition A look at the Renwick Gallery See page 16
Players to Watch, Winter Edition See page 23
Tattler Date Lab: Will Michael and Miranda hit it off? See page 14
interview with The Tattler last month. “Camern is more ready to take on whatever comes to him.” Ana was timid mainly because of gender misidentification. “When I was younger, I was the tomboy,” Camern recalled. “I would always wear shorts. I’d always be roughhousing with [my brother’s] friends.” Even with hair down to his
shoulders (albeit unstyled), Camern was often asked “are you a boy or a girl?” Though Camern reminds us that “feminine” does not necessarily mean “female” and “masculine” does not necessarily mean “male,” his masculinity did distance him from the gender he was assigned at birth. In October of his sophomore year, Camern came out
as gender neutral. He introduced his friends and family to Camern (pronounced “Cameron”), but most people continued to address him with the pronouns “she” and “her.” It was not until February of that school year that he came out as transgender and began to respond exclusively to “he”/“him” pronouns. See page 4
Bocce Looks to Continue Legacy By Lauren Applequist and Hannah Robinson
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ast year, the B-CC bocce team had an impeccable season, winning nine out of eleven games and the division, regional, and state championships. This year’s team will look to repeat its run, led by second-year captain and senior Jared Goldstein, and his fellow captain, senior Mary Spencer. According to Goldstein, the team’s goal is to “win all three championships again.” Assistant Coach Isabel Kessler, a 2014 B-CC graduate who played on the bocce team, attributes the team’s success to its coaching staff, led by B-CC
Team Manager Katherine Vangaever assists Captain Mary Spencer. special education teacher Steve Sutherland. Bocce is in its seventh season at B-CC, making it a relatively new sport to the school. In 2010, it was a part of an
MCPS pilot program, in which the sport was introduced to six schools. Since then, it has grown to 22 schools across the county. See page 22
Feature
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December 2015
Camern’s Story: Breaking Down Binaries and Boundaries by Just Being Himself
(Continued from Front Page) What does it mean to be transgender? First used in 1971, the term “transgender” denotes people who feel that the gender they were assigned at birth does not describe them. This includes transgender men, like Camern, who were assigned to be female at birth, and transgender women, who were assigned to be male at birth. The Human Rights Campaign asserts that, contrary to popular opinion, being transgender is not all about getting surgery or taking hormones; it’s about assuming one’s true identity, and it’s often a struggle. The National LGBTQ Task Force reports
that rates of discrimination and hate violence towards trans people in the U.S. are disproportionately high. It asserts that, in 2014, 78% of K-12 transgender students were harassed at school by peers or teachers. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, 42% of transgender
women and 46% of transgender men in the U.S. have attempted suicide. “I came out to my mom over a bowl of mac and cheese.” Though Camern always felt somewhat uncomfortable as a girl, he didn’t think about transitioning into a boy until he was sixteen, when he stumbled upon Susan Kuklin’s book Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out. Kuklin’s book shares the stories of six real transgender and gender-neutral individuals, providing the details of the challenges they battled during their transitions. “It seemed to me that few people knew much about the ‘T’ in LGBTQ,” Kuklin told TeachingBooks.net. “My plan was to write a very personal book from the point of view of young adults who are part of the trans community...so that others questioning their gender know that they are not alone.” As he pored through all 179 pages of the book one Thursday morning, Camern realized he shared the feelings of the book’s subjects. “I finally found the label that fits with what I’m feeling,” he recalled thinking at the time. That afternoon, Camern came out to his close friends and his mom. “I just kinda went with it.” Coming out to his mother, Camern decided to “rip it off like a Band-Aid.” “We were sitting in a Potbelly restaurant and I was like ‘Mom, this is really good mac and cheese. By the way, I’m transgender!’”
Camern’s brother, Andrei Pinkus, also a junior at B-CC, confirms that he is “totally cool with it,” and that “going to school with him is just like normal.” At first, using “he”/“him” pronouns felt unfamiliar, but Andrei explained that he adjusted pretty quickly, asking, “Who am I to judge my own brother?” Andrei said, “It wasn’t weird in the sense that I wasn’t okay with it; it was just hard to completely change what I would call him. But I’m totally supportive, and by now I never mess up [the pronouns].” Camern’s parents took a bit longer than his brother to understand his decision. His parents first replied with, “‘I don’t really know much about that’ and then they kind of went into a state of denial,” Camern recalled. “My mom and dad are still trying to adjust,” Andrei said, adding that their father is still struggling to use Camern’s pronouns. “Now, they don’t bring it up anymore. It’s not really spoken but it’s not [denied] either, which [I consider] a win-win situation,” says Camern. At school, Camern’s teachers quietly respect his decision. “Most of my teachers don’t actively acknowledge it,” though they do respect his pronouns, he told us. Though most of his friends responded well to the news, Camern did encounter a few who questioned his decision. Some friends “didn’t really understand,” he explained. In response, Camern said he “got frustrated.” “I thought, ‘Everyone has to agree with me.’ I flipped out and was like, ‘If you don’t support me, just get out,’” he said. Looking back, Camern added: “[the transition] was kind of a big thing to put on my friends, so I don’t blame them.” When dealing with bullying, Camern refuses to let others shake his confi-
I could be targeted because I’m not being as masculine as I’m expected to be,” he said. “I do have days when I really want to wear a skirt, but then I rethink, ‘do I really want to have everyone pounding me with questions?’” In the end, “you can’t let people get to you in deciding who you want to be,” he stated. Though coming out is rarely easy, many transgender teenagers are not as lucky as Camern in terms of a community’s support. According to Camern, “for the LGBT spectrum, B-CC is one of the best schools.” “We’re really fortunate to have our school in a community that’s well-educated and therefore accepting,” he said. Support from Spectrum One thing that makes B-CC such an accepting school is the Spectrum Club, which promotes equality for LGBTQ+ students. Through the club, LGBTQ+ students can find others to relate to, and cisgender and straight students can broaden their education about gender identities and sexual orientation. The club meets every Thursday at lunch in the classroom of health teacher and LGBTQ+ community member Ms. Lizarazo. Camern is one of four student leaders. At meetings, “we’ll alternate a week from a lesson, which can vary from ‘are you ready to have sex?’ to ‘this is terminology,’ and every other week will be reading questions from the question box,” he said. Spectrum has proved invaluable in Camern’s transition. Coming out as transgender seemed less daunting when it was to a group of students involved in the LGBTQ+ community. When he came out, the club responded with enthusiasm. “They were just like, ‘Oh, yeah! You go! Great deci-
“I do think of [Ana and Camern] as two different people. Camern is more ready to take on whatever comes to him.”
Reactions: the Good and the Bad The reactions after Camern came out were mostly positive. “My friends were fairly good about it,” he remembered. “My siblings take it really, really well and that makes me really happy.” Camern supporting Spectrum at the B-CC Club Fair this fall. He is one of the club’s four student leaders.
dence. “My goal in being transgender is to be an activist and to teach people, and I can’t do that if I’m not positive with myself,” he said. More often than encountering blatantly mean bullies, Camern faces people who try to convince him of the error of his decision. In these moments, he struggles to regain his confidence: “I already had to go through so much to figure out who I was. When people tell me that it was a bad choice, it really does hit my self-esteem.” Most of the time, it is adults who challenge Camern’s gender identity. They argue that he cannot possibly decide his own gender at the mere age of sixteen. “I always fight back with, ‘you want me to choose my career path for the next fifty years, but I’m not allowed to decide that I don’t feel comfortable how I was born?!’” he grinned. To avoid further questioning, Camern feels obliged to assert his masculinity to prove his male gender. “If I’m wearing a shirt that’s more feminine, I feel vulnerable, and I feel like
sion!’” Camern remembered. This positive reaction gave Camern the confidence to tell everyone he knew about his transition. Through Spectrum, Camern found a supportive group of close friends and a platform from which he can base his LGBTQ+ activism. A Less-Progressive B-CC, As Remembered by Zo Thorpe Several years before Camern began his freshman year, Zo Thorpe (class of 2011) attended a less progressive B-CC, overlooking his gender-nonconformity. While at B-CC, Zo identified as female and went by his birth name, Zoe. Now a 22-year-old transgender male teaching assistant in New York City, Zo reflects on a high school experience very different from Camern’s. “With puberty came anxiety due to the fact that, like many high school kids, I lacked a knowledge or understanding of gender non-conformity to understand myself,” he said. When Zo
Feature
December 2015 was at B-CC, students were generally less knowledgeable about and accepting of trans individuals. In one tragic case, ignorance and bullying led to the suicide of a trans B-CC student. “I remember a former B-CC student, Aidan Rivera Schaeff, an inspiration,” said Zo. “He was the first person I knew of to be openly transgender, and unfortunately he passed away during his senior year as a result of the bullying he experienced for being who he was.” Such cases not only devastated the victims’ families and communities, but also led students to feign gender conformity to avoid conflict. Zo did not publicly come out until earlier this year. “I remember wishing that I was a boy at various points, but I didn’t seriously consider that I could be transgender until about a year ago, right before starting my senior year of college,” he said. Since Zo graduated, the LGBTQ+ rights movement has gained momentum as a result of increased media attention. For instance, Caitlyn Jenner’s coming out story, published in Vanity Fair this past June, sparked a national interest in the trans community. “I think that the rise in coverage on trans and other gender nonconforming people is amazing,” Zo said. Still, he feels that the media doesn’t share the stories of non-celebrity trans people enough. “Although I am happy for Caitlyn Jenner and for the fact that her story has started discussion, her experience isn’t very relatable for me,” he said. “We need more coverage on everyday people’s experiences.” “If people, especially kids and young adults, were exposed to more diverse and relatable transgender experiences, things might improve for people in my community,” he concluded. The Bathroom Dilemma Despite more widespread acknowledgment of the LGBTQ+ community, MCPS’ policies for transgender students are far from clear. There are no clear district-wide policies governing what bathrooms trans individuals should use and what sports teams they should join. Each school’s administration thus speaks with students and families about those issues on a case-by-case basis. The Board of Education has
been reviewing these issues for almost two years, but there has been no official change in procedure. The bathroom issue is highly controversial. According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, 59% of trans students have been denied access to restrooms consistent with their gender identity. Such denials violate Title IX, a federal law that prevents sex- and gender-based discrimination in schools. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Education interpreted this law to entitle transgender students to use restrooms consistent with their genders. But even when students are permitted to use the bathrooms of
“Who am I to judge my own brother?” their new genders, they often face criticism from other students. As Camern explained, “it can be a bit awkward in the social aspect.” For that reason, he prefers to use the girls’ bathroom. To avoid this problem, the Spectrum Club proposes gender-neutral bathrooms at B-CC. But that proposal encounters significant obstacles. “I don’t think that’s going to change over my years at B-CC. We can see if we can try, but it’s such a big change,” Camern admitted. The Athletics Dilemma Membership in sports teams also poses controversial issues. The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA) states that “school systems should develop and apply locally designed criteria for students to participate in interscholastic athletic teams consistent with their consistently asserted gender identity.” But MPSSAA also asserts that “the integrity of women’s sports should be preserved.” It is this statement that generates the most controversy. Men’s and women’s sports teams are kept separate because men, with the physiological advantage of tes-
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tosterone, are generally faster and stronger than women. According to MPSSAA policy, therefore, co-ed competition is not an option. In general, female students may compete on boys’ teams, but male students may not compete on girls’ teams. So, what happens when a maleto-female transgender student, still reaping the benefits of her testosterone, wants to compete with other girls? What if this female student previously dominated boys’ sports and, after gender transition, would easily smash all female records? MPSSAA instructs schools to decide these issues on a case-by-case. “Policies governing sports should be based on sound medical knowledge and scientific validity,” it says. “I wouldn’t want to hold a kid back because of [gender identity], but I also wouldn’t want the competition to become skewed,” said B-CC athletic director Mr. James Tapley, when asked whether a trans student who identifies as female but is anatomically male should be free to participate on a girls’ team. Camern has never played on a B-CC sports team but says that he has played soccer outside of school “basically since [he] could run.” He will not take testosterone until he turns eighteen, and although he identifies as male, he has not legally changed his gender. As a result, he chooses to play on a girls’ travel team. “I looked at their skill level, and how we worked together as a team,” he explained. “I would love to be on a male soccer team, but I would wait until I take testosterone, so I could be able to keep up with them.” For now, Camern is content to play on the girls’ team. “They’re a really good team, and I work really well with them,” he said. Leave With This Camern offered this advice to students struggling with gender identity: “Try different things. And take your time; there is no pressure in figuring out who you want to be.” And for the rest of the student body? “Keep an open mind, respect pronouns and desired names, and don’t ask what is down a trans person’s pants.” Grace Rosen contributed to this article.
A Beginner’s Guide to Gender Identity Terms Gender: How people identify and express themselves. This could be as male, female, or somewhere in-between. This relates to social and cultural norms, expectations, values, attitudes, and behaviors. Cisgender: A description for a person whose gender identity, gender expression, and biological sex all align Gender identity: The sense of being male, female, genderqueer, agender, etc. For some people, gender identity is in accord with their physical anatomy. For transgender people, gender identity may differ from physical anatomy or expected social roles. Intersex: A person whose sexual anatomy or chromosomes do not fit within the traditional markers of female and male Gender Expression: The external display of gender, through a combination of dress, demeanor, social behavior, and other factors, generally measured on a scale of masculinity and femininity Transgender: Frequently used as an umbrella term to refer to people who do not identify with their assigned gender at birth or within the binary gender system Two-Spirit: A term traditionally used by Native American people to recognize individuals who possess qualities or fulfill roles of both genders Genderqueer: A term that refers to individuals who possess identities which fall outside of the widely accepted sexual binary (i.e. men and women): It may also refer to people who identify as both transgender AND queer. Definitions adapted from University of Michigan’s Spectrum Center and itspronouncedmetrosexual.com
A Non-Comprehensive Timeline of Transgender History in the United States
1952
Christine Jorgensen becomes first American to undergo a sex change: After traveling to Denmark for surgery and hormone treatment, she becomes an advocate for transgender rights in the U.S.
1966
Compton’s Cafeteria Riots: Trans women fight back against police violence and harassment in San Francisco.
1977
Renee Richards allowed to play in US Open: The New York Supreme Court ruled that trans woman Renée Richards was eligible to play at the United States Open as a woman.
1993 2008
First state protections for trans individuals: Minnesota extends protections against discrimination to transgender people.
First transgender model on reality television: Isis King, a transgender woman, places 10th on the 11th cycle of America’s Next Top Model.
2014
Laverne Cox becomes the first transgender person on cover of Time Magazine and first to be nominated for an Emmy.