By James Green
Copyright FTM Newsletter
Used with Permission
Thurin Schminke is a man who makes a difference. Now an instructor in the Sociology department at Northern Arizona University (NAU) who teaches a course called "Transsexualism in Society," Thurin started out in a female body which carried the name Carmen.
Growing up in Los Angeles a classic "tomboy," relating better with boys than with girls, struggling with gender identity issues without any language to use to talk about it, nor anyone to talk to, Carmen eventually turned to drugs and alcohol to mask the pain and confusion, and wound up in a treatment program in 1984. Going through the 12 steps in the process of staying "clean and sober," Carmen kept a diary, and excerpts from that diary, with Thurin's introduction, have become the primary text in Thurin's sociology class.
Thurin's manuscript is a good read. He is thoughtful and honest in describing the events of his life and his feelings. He talks about trying to be a "real woman" by marrying a man in 1989. Two years later, Carmen had decided on divorce. Carmen wrote: "Whenever we make love, I simply disappear into another dimension. What an awful, lying way to live. The time has come to end it even if I do disgrace my German family upbringing. I am a bad person and a failure as a woman."
Thurin was open and up-front about his transsexuality once he had done the research and accepted himself. Virtually alone (without other TS support) in Flagstaff, he found his own social and medical support team and conducted his transition virtually in public, lecturing in classes, speaking on the radio, processing it with his AA sponsor. Everything went pretty well for him. Of course his diary notes the rough spots, the times when he was frightened or depressed; but in the long run, it's a real success story.
Then he hit the big time. Arizona Governor Fife Symington heard about the class that Thurin was teaching (as a grad student) and had a fit about public monies being used to promote "alternative lifestyles" or some such ill-comprehending statement, and the press jumped on it like fish to bait. From the front page of the Lumberjack, a Flagstaff paper, to U. Magazine (I don't know what kind of publication that is), to the National Enquirer, Thurin had to deal with considerable public scrutiny.
Stories appeared in over 150 papers nationwide. "Crazed officials have arranged with bizarre transsexual to teach a college course called "Transsexuals in Society" in which the gender-bending educator actually makes students cross- dress!" screamed the Enquirer. The Enquirer reporter sought a controversial quote from an opponent and he found one in the words of Sid Taylor, research director of the National Taxpayers' Foundation in Washington, D.C., who said, "This not only wastes students' time, but warps their minds with crazy information about wacko sexual perversions. It's an outrage!"
The President of NAU stood up for academic freedom, and the course continued. The assignment to cross-dress was actually an extra credit option, one that many students thought was instructive.
Of course, Thurin was invited to appear on The Montel Williams Show, the Jerry Springer Show, and Donahue, but he didn't go. He has stayed at his teaching post since the President of NAU had reservations about the usefulness of airing local issues on national talk shows, yet Thurin continues to speak publicly, and to provide referral assistance to other FTMs in Arizona. This year Thurin has twice visited San Francisco and attended FTM meetings. It's been great to get to know him and to network with him.
He has made his manuscript available at a cost of $10.00 (if you want a copy, send your check or money order, made out to Thurin Schminke, to FTM, and we will forward it to him). And he continues to support the cause of research and education about transsexualism in the hope of one day lifting the stigma and shame and oppression that work to keep us from fulfilling ourselves. Thurin's story is an inspirational one, like so many of our stories. I, for one, am glad that he is willing to tell it.
(FTM's address is 527 College Ave #142, Oakland, CA 94618)