LEGACY OF LEARNING

A new scholarship fund for transgender students honors the work of activist Peggy Rudd

by Tim Brookover

More than a decade ago, educator and author Peggy Rudd, whose books include My Husband Wears My Clothes and Crossdressing With Dignity, helped establish the Houston Transgender Unity Committee. That consortium of local trans organizations has now honored Rudd by establishing a fund in her name that will provide scholarships to help transgender individuals pay for college. Proceeds from the annual Unity Committee banquet, held this year on April 24 at the Southwest Hilton, will support the new Peggy Rudd Transgender Scholarship Fund.

“We hope to provide the first scholarships next fall,” Rudd said in a recent interview. “This is so important. It seems more difficult for trans people” to obtain funds for education.

When scholarship applicants identify themselves as transgender, they frequently discover they lose their opportunity, Rudd explained. Education is one of the two top issues in the trans community, as Brenda Thomas, another prominent trans activist, stated in a March 20 local meeting with Human Rights Campaign executive director Cheryl Jacques. The other issue, Thomas said, is employment, which still typically follows from education, even in this uncertain, outsource-it-all economy.

“I believe we unite because we’re too weak not to,” Rudd said, reminiscing about the formation of the Unity Committee from the trans groups at the time, which included Tri-Ess/Society for the Second Self and Gulf Coast Transgender Community. “I think it’s that same spirit that will grow the scholarship fund.”

The Unity Committee recognized Rudd’s long involvement with the transgender committee by presenting her the lifetime achievement award at the 2002 Unity Banquet.

Peggy Rudd (pictured, right) and her spouse Melanie—the husband of her book title—have been married for 23 years. They have four adult children between them (from previous marriages). Both Rudds are now retired. For 15 years, they have organized and hosted the Dignity Cruises. On these shipboard group tours, travelers who include cross dressers and their families are encouraged to wear the clothes they wish. The next of these trips is the September 18–25 “TG Hands Across the Atlantic” Mediterranean voyage.

The Rudds remain intensely devoted to the cruises for the often life-changing opportunities they give individuals who cross dress. As Terri, “a crossdresser from Texas,” wrote of her first cruise in fall 2003 (as published on the Dignity website):

“Seeing how one positive change led to others, it can only be the beginning of good things to come. And to recall my first ‘full time’ week will always bring me back to joy…! I’ll be looking forward to the next time I can feel that way again….

“There were more possibilities than I could know. If you need change in your life, take a chance and strive to live your dreams.”

Peggy and Melanie Rudd obviously relish their roles as hosts, mentors, counselors, and cruise directors on these trips. “I love to nurture and bond and grow with them,” Peggy Rudd said. With the new scholarship fund that bears her name, she will continue to do just that for education-seeking transgender people, many who she may never meet, for years to come.

Tim Brookover wrote about the Paul Cadmus drawings exhibition at the University of Houston Downtown in our February issue.

THOMAS HONORED WITH TITLE

The International Foundation for Gender Education will present its Trinity Award to Houston transgender and HIV/AIDS activist Brenda Thomas at the organization’s April 1–4 conference in Philadelphia. The Massachusetts-based nonprofit foundation, publisher of Transgender Tapestry magazine, is a leading advocate and educational organization for promoting the free expression of gender identity. The Trinity Award honors heroes in the trans community.

Thomas received the Unity Committee lifetime achievement award at the 2003 Unity Banquet.

ACTIVIST HEADLINES BANQUET

Writer and activist Jamison Green, chairman of the board of Gender Education & Advocacy, Inc. and Planetout.com columnist, will give the keynote address at the April 24 Unity Banquet. In June, Vanderbilt University Press will publish Green’s book Becoming a Visible Man, which combines autobiography with analysis of the challenges faced by female-to-male transsexuals.

For banquet info and reservations: www.brendat.com/unity.htm, unity_tickets@hotmail.com.

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