Chris Mosier, a nationally recognized NMU alum, is coming to speak about creating social change and his experience as a transgender athlete at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 25 as a part of the United Conference.

The event is sponsored by both Platform Personalities and the Student Activity Fee. It will be held in The Great Lakes Rooms of the University Center with free admission to students and $2 for the general public.

The Uniting Neighbors In The Experience of Diversity (UNITED) Conference is aimed at informing the NMU and greater-Marquette area of different types of perspectives and points of view, with the ultimate goal of helping people think differently about
diversity and inclusion, according to the UNITED website.

“We were hoping to bring someone who would fit with that group essentially,” Sara Head,
co-president of Platform Personalities, said.

Chris Mosier said he will talk about how everyone has the ability to influence the spirit around them. In the discussion, he will talk about his journey as a transgender athlete and about being a person who helped changed policies regarding transgender athletes in the Olympics.

Head said they brought Mosier to Northern to shed more light on social justice issues within the LGBTQ+ community.

“Chris is an openly trans athlete as well as an NMU alum, so he is acting as a liaison for Northern to be exposed to more LGBTQ+ people and hopefully he sheds a lot of light on people’s minds,” Head said.

Mosier, who is an athlete, coach, educator and the founder of TransAthlete.com, is a three-time Ironman Triathlete and inductee into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame. Mosier was also a silver medalist in the triathlon of the 2014 Gay Games and currently works as the Vice President of Program Development and Community relations for You Can Play, an organization dedicated to ensuring equality, respect and safety for all athletes, according to their website.

In 2015, Mosier became the first openly transgender man to make a Men’s U.S. National team. He has spoken previously at NMU for a United
Conference.

A Q&A will be held right after Mosier’ speech as well as an autograph signing on Monday. For more information about the event, contact the Center for Student Enrichment.

Mosier discusses his time at NMU

Chris Mosier said he has always been an athlete, but stepped away from sports—only doing intramurals while at NMU after feeling uncomfortable being on a women’s team. It wasn’t until people around him told him that the way he was behaving and wanted to dress didn’t align with his gender when he felt something was wrong.

Mosier said he didn’t fully understand his identity as a trans man until he was about 28 to 29. It was then that he made the transition.

Mosier recently competed in the Long Course Duathlon National Championship for Team USA back in April, making it his fourth time earning a spot on the Men’s team. He placed second in his age group. He also recently competed in the Powerman Long Distance Duathlon World Championships, the highest competition for triathlons, in Switzerland, where he placed ninth in the long course duathlon.

He has competed in triathlons since 2009, where he competed one year as female, but Mosier said the first few years were a learning curve for him.

“It’s not just swimming, biking and running together, but it’s the whole sport in and of itself,” Mosier said. “You have to really think about it in a different way than you would approach each of those for an individual race.”

After it proved challenging to be masculine while competing as a female, Mosier decided to transition, which ultimately encouraged him to create transathlete.com after not finding much information online about sport’s rules regarding transgender athletes.

In June 2015, Mosier was the first openly trans man to ever make the Men’s U.S. National Team, but he was ineligible to compete in the world competition because of the Olympics policy in place at the time. He then advocated to get the policy changed by appealing to the Olympics committee.

“Overall, in terms of athletics, people see this is as an area which needs to be addressed proactively, rather than as a result of a lawsuit or an athlete advocating for their right to participate,” he said.

Mosier said he is excited to return after speaking previously at NMU in 2015.

“Northern holds a very special place in my heart despite the fact   that it was a challenging time for me as a person,” Mosier said. “It was a time where I grew so much and made so many great relationships and friendships there. I always say it’s a great day to be a Wildcat.”