High school and college are trying times for everyone. You’re told these will be some of the greatest years of your life, but the reality is you’re still just trying to figure out just who ‘You’ is. You’re attempting to find a healthy balance between school, jobs, extracurriculars, eating a healthy diet and having a social life.
The stress takes its toll, but one way you can cope with it all is through sports. There’s comfort in the focus that it takes to play a game or to run a match. It’s a safe spot within your hectic daily schedule. Athletics can not only be your release, but a passion.
One day, however, you can no longer compete because you’re transgender.
NMU alum and LGBTQ+ advocate Chris Mosier revolutionized athletics for transgender people when he became the first trans member of the 2015 Team USA men’s sprint
duathlon team. His achievements were seen as controversial to fellow alumni and many more. The controversy he faced and will continue to face, stands as a reflection of the
current sociopolitical times.
Yet amidst it all, Mosier continues to speak out about equality in sports for the LGBTQ+ community and is an inspiration to transgender youth athletes. He has changed athletics and spreads the importance of being your true self while pursuing your passions.
Within the current political climate there are still those pushing for reform in areas that are imperative to what we deem necessary for a healthy and happy nation, such as black rights, women’s rights and the rights of LGBTQ+ people.
As fellow Wildcats we would like to assure that, within this time, there stands a generation that acknowledges that society must evolve and we embrace it. A more accepting
student body now fills the halls of Jamrich and is inspired by a previous ’Cat positively impacting lives. Today, we are able to explore identity in ways not possible before and this is thanks to people such as Mosier.
His determination and success through it all proves him fearless in the face of adversity and that’s just what NMU stands for.
