Finding ‘Home’ at Grinnell

The idea of “home” can be complicated for trans students.

“At ‘home,’ you may not be recognized as your true self or you may have to play the role of someone else,” says Romeo Garcia ’23. “Oftentimes, ‘home’ really doesn’t feel like ‘home.’”

Garcia is a co-leader of Trans at Grinnell (tag), a confidential student group that offers trans students a space to come together in community to support, empower, and uplift each other. Tag welcomes all trans students to its meetings, and is inclusive of gender-nonconforming, nonbinary, and gender-questioning students. “At tag, we create a supportive community for trans students, which can give us the confidence and security to truly be ourselves at Grinnell, and finally feel at ‘home’ somewhere,” Garcia says.

Garcia understands the need to feel at home. He grew up in Oklahoma and came to Grinnell as a first-generation college student. “Back home, I had no trans friends, nor trans community,” Garcia says. “I had been very isolated and alienated from my peers in high school due to being trans.”

When Garcia arrived at Grinnell, things began to change. He remembers his first tag meeting. “That was the first time I had ever been in the same room with so many trans people at once!” he says. “I quickly found a sense of community and support that I had been severely lacking.” His peers in tag offered advice and care, helping him acclimate to college life and feel a sense of belonging.

Garcia is now a senior English major with a Latin American Studies concentration. He plans to devote his life to teaching. “I am passionate about education,” he says. “I am working to become a middle school English teacher in the Washington, D.C., area.” He’s also a QuestBridge Scholar — QuestBridge is a nonprofit that connects high-achieving low-income youth with many of the best colleges nationwide.

Tag remains an important part of Garcia’s life. These days, he’s the one helping younger students adjust to life at Grinnell and to find a “home” here.

Tag meetings are pretty lowkey, Garcia explains. “At most meetings, we just have group discussions and check in with each other about life and the joys and difficulties of being trans at Grinnell and at home,” he says. “Tag always has a very friendly and chill energy; we aren’t here to question or interrogate people’s identities. Instead, this is a very accepting space for trans folks to come and feel heard, seen, and understood in their transness or queerness.

“This is a space created and maintained by trans students, for trans students,” he adds.

It’s also a confidential group — the safety of tag members is one of the group’s top priorities. “Not everyone is or wants to be openly out as trans,” Garcia explains. “Although we celebrate our transness at tag, we recognize that outside of this space, being openly trans often means placing yourself in a difficult and vulnerable social position.

“By keeping tag membership confidential, we allow members who are not out or who are stealth to keep their trans identity private while still being able to connect with trans community,” Garcia says. “Keeping our membership confidential is key to respecting trans autonomy and agency.”

Garcia says that although the group appreciates its cisgender allies, tag is a space exclusively for trans students. Holding firm to this rule maintains a safe space for trans students to be comfortably open and honest about their transness.

Tag actually has quite a long history of supporting trans students at Grinnell. “Because tag is a confidential group, we are a bit ‘underground,’ so many people often mistake us as a new group when tag has actually been around since 2006!” Garcia says. Tag started as an offshoot of the Trans Reading Group, and it has undergone several name changes over the years, from Trans Advocacy Group (the first name), to Trans Action Group and Trans Anarchy Group (not an official name, but rather a fond inside joke amongst tag members). In the spring 2022, it changed to Trans at Grinnell.

“I don’t know what it is about the acronym ‘tag,’ but it seems like the group has definitely sought to keep this acronym whenever we change our name!” Garcia says.