{"id":13033,"date":"2024-06-17T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-17T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/?p=13033"},"modified":"2024-06-18T19:51:22","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T23:51:22","slug":"empowered-by-community-navigating-gender-identity-in-journalism-school-and-prssa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/2024\/06\/17\/empowered-by-community-navigating-gender-identity-in-journalism-school-and-prssa\/","title":{"rendered":"Empowered by Community: Navigating Gender Identity in Journalism School and PRSSA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I didn\u2019t start my public relations studies identifying as my current gender. I always had some understanding that I was likely transgender and began my transition while in college. Transferring to another university gave me the opportunity to explore my gender identity, and the community I found through PRSSA Nevada encouraged me to embrace who I truly am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I transferred to the University of Nevada, Reno in the spring 2022 . The Reynolds School of Journalism and my roommates were more than accepting of who I am. Throughout the years, I slowly discovered it was empowering to be surrounded by allies. I always noticed the care my friends, advisers and fellow PRSSA board members took to recognize and affirm my identity. The people I met during my time in journalism school and PRSSA Nevada always made me feel safe to express my identity, and I will always value their allyship. It means so much more than they know \u2014 especially in the current climate around LGBTQ+ and transgender rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The support I received from my friends and PRSSA even prompted me to come out to my parents. It was a tear-filled therapy session where I informed my mother that I transitioned, and I received only her love and support. I began becoming increasingly public with my identity, and it prompted me to become more engaged with the LGBTQ+ community outside of online spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During my time as PRSSA Nevada\u2019s president, I organized a diversity, equity and inclusion panel with the VP of Programming titled \u201cHidden Voices.\u201d First, I connected with the Trans Journalists Association and found speakers with the help of Kae Petrin, the TJA\u2019s interim executive director. The panel featured Byron Kimball, a public relations specialist based in Oregon, and Kim Garcia, a researcher with Berkeley\u2019s Media Studies group. Kimball and Garcia provided valuable insight and resources to attendees about best practices in workplace diversity and in communications with the LGBTQ+ community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am grateful to the communications industry for the culture of inclusion it has fostered. Communications, as a whole, is an attempt to reach out and understand others \u2014 be it through investigative journalism or public relations. The communications field challenges people to release inherent biases and to learn more about others. I do not think I could have found myself if I decided to take another path in life, and I owe much of this to PRSSA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jesse Cabrera is a senior at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. His passion for communications started at Spring Valley High School, where he was a regular contributor to the student newspaper. Cabrera transferred universities to pursue his passion for public relations in January 2022. Since then, he became a staff member at the Nevada Sagebrush and was PRSSA Nevada’s president for the 2023-2024 academic year. In his free time, Cabrera enjoys photography and creative writing.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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I didn\u2019t start my public relations studies identifying as my current gender. I always had some understanding that I was likely transgender and began my transition while in college. Transferring to another university gave me the opportunity to explore my gender identity, and the community I found through PRSSA Nevada encouraged me to embrace who I truly am. I transferred […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":13045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2893,2898],"tags":[3771,3772,15,40],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13033"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13033"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13046,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13033\/revisions\/13046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}