Toby Hill-Meyer History Lesson

He/She/Ze

by Michael Munkvold

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Toby Hill-Meyer, while biologically male, feels at least partly feminine in terms of gender identity—an orientation known as transgender. Hill-Meyer is also “genderqueer,” meaning someone who doesn’t completely identify as either a man or a woman. Hill-Meyer, 21, a UO student activist for the university’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Association (LGBTQA), uses either female pronouns (which will be used in this article) or a set of gender pronouns devoid of gender, such as “ze” instead of “he” and “hir” instead of “his.” She wears either unisex clothes or clothes traditionally ascribed to both men and women. She is trying to get on a regimen of female hormones.

Since coming out as transgender and genderqueer at 19, Hill-Meyer has found support from friends and her partner, Alethia, but has also attracted confusion, scorn, and discrimination.