   
Cal Evoniuk Narrator   Andrea Jenkins Interviewer 
    
The Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies University of Minnesota 
October 15, 2016 
 
 
   

 
  
The Transgender Oral History Project of the Upper Midwest will empower individuals to tell their story, while providing students, historians, and the public with a more rich foundation of primary source material about the transgender community.  The project is part of the Tretter Collection at the University of Minnesota.  The archive provides a record of GLBT thought, knowledge and culture for current and future generations and is available to students, researchers and members of the public. 
The Transgender Oral History Project will collect up to 400 hours of oral histories involving 200 to 300 individuals over the next three years.  Major efforts will be the recruitment of individuals of all ages and experiences, and documenting the work of The Program in Human Sexuality.  This project will be led by Andrea Jenkins, poet, writer, and trans-activist.  Andrea brings years of experience working in government, non-profits and LGBT organizations.  If you are interested in being involved in this exciting project, please contact Andrea. 
Andrea Jenkins jenki120@umn.edu (612) 625-4379 
   
 
Andrea Jenkins -AJ 1 
Cal Evoniuk  -CE 2 
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AJ: So, hello.  My name is Andrea Jenkins and I am the oral historian for the Transgender Oral 5 History Project. Today is October 15, 2016, and I am at North Dakota State University at the 6 Dismantling Walls Conference and I am sitting her today with CJ . . .  7 
CE: Cal. 8 
AJ: Cal, Im sorry.   9 
CE: CJs chilling over there.   10 
AJ: OK, CJ is chilling over there.  CJ is up next, but this is Cal.  How are you doing, Cal? 11 
CE: Im doing really good. 12 
AJ: So, Cal, state your name, spell your name and your gender as how you identify today and your 13 gender assigned at birth, and your pronouns that you use. 14 
CE: Im Cal, C-a-l.  I identify as male so he/him pronouns and I was assigned female at birth. 15 
AJ: How do you spell your last name? 16 
CE: Evoniuk.  E-v-o-n-i-u-k.   17 
AJ: All right, thanks Cal.  So, wow, where are you from? 18 
CE: I am from Belfield, North Dakota.   19 
AJ: Belfield, North Dakota.  Whats Belfield like? 20 
CE: It is a very, very little, tiny town in the southwest corner of North Dakota.  Very little tiny rural 21 farming community. 22 
AJ: Yeah, did you grow up on a farm?   23 
CE: No, I grew up in town but you grow up around farms, you kind of grow up on a farm even if you 24 dont live on one  everybody is on a farm. 25 
AJ: Right. 26 
CE: Even when youre not. 27 
AJ: Its just one big farm. 28 
CE: Yeah, everything is a big old farm.   29 
AJ: So I take it you went to school there and everything in Belfield? 30 
CE: Yeah, it was a K-12 school so I went there up until my sophomore year and then I moved to a 31 slightly larger school.   32 
AJ: Oh, so you went to one school for . . .  1 
CE: Most of my life, yeah. 2 
AJ: Was there any bullying, harassment or anything that you experienced in school?   3 
CE: I never personally experienced anything because I was a little terrified of coming out so I kind of 4 kept silent about it.   5 
AJ: Yeah?  Very understandable. 6 
CE: But there was a lot of . . . there was always kind of the whispers and like people using . . . like 7 the jokes about various sexual identities and gender identities and those things being used as a 8 joke and as an insult, which kind of scared a person into the closet a little more.  So I was always 9 very aware that the way that I felt about my gender wasnt normal, according to the very 10 conservative population that I grew up in.   11 
AJ: Wow.  When is the first time you became aware of your different gender identity from how you 12 were assigned at birth? 13 
CE: I think Ive always kind of been aware of it a little bit.  I remember when I was a little kid telling 14 my mom, I feel like a boy.  And even growing up playing games with my friends I was always 15 like the boy character in the games that we played, but I never really had a word for it until I was 16 14.  I was watching a TV show and there was a transgender character and I was like, Thats how 17 I feel, thats a thing.  So, kind of knowing all my life but not having a way to put it into words. 18 
AJ: The language. 19 
CE: Yeah.   20 
AJ: Wow.  Did you come out in high school?  Let me ask you this, have you ever had any other 21 identity other than girl?  Right?  That was your sort of identity that was placed on you and then 22 trans.  Were there identities in-between that? 23 
CE: In high school I came out as gay, as a gay female.   24 
AJ: So lesbian. 25 
CE: Yeah, I identified as a lesbian for a while but it didnt feel exactly like that was what was right 26 because I felt like my attraction to girls was a boy attracted to girls, I didnt feel like female.  So it 27 was always kind of a weird thing for me when I would date people because they would see me 28 as, Oh, Im dating a girl, and I would be like . . . on the inside its not how I . . . no.   29 
AJ: Wow, do you still identify as lesbian too? 30 
CE: No, now I identify as a straight male. 31 
AJ: There you go.  Heterosexual.   32 
CE: Yeah, its a weird thing to think about because Im . . . Im straight now, its a weird concept 33 because that was another thing that I grew up not feeling right about.  As being assigned female 34 I felt like I shouldnt like girls and when I was like, Oh, but I feel like a boy, so am I straight, am I 35 gay?  Where do I fall in this?  And now that Ive come to terms with my gender identity Im like, 1 OK, this is where . . . this is my little . . . this is where Im at on this thing with the labels.   2 
AJ: Nice.  So, we were talking a little bit earlier, when did you come out?   3 
CE: I came out last Thursday  literally. This is a very new process for me.  Ive been thinking about 4 this for . . . I attended a conference last year during my freshman year and they keynote speaker 5 was a trans man, Ryan Sallans.   6 
AJ: Whats his name? 7 
CE: Ryan Sallans. 8 
AJ: Ryan . . . 9 
CE: Sallans.  S-a-l-l-a-n-s. 10 
AJ: OK.  11 
CE: He was kind of the first trans guy that I had met where I was like . . . I can feel this way and come 12 out OK on the other end of it.   13 
AJ: Sure. 14 
CE: It was kind of what I needed, my little push to send me in the right direction.  This is something 15 Ive been working on and talking to people a little bit about for almost a year now.  Last 16 Thursday I was like, OK, its time.  So I told my family, I told my friends and Im out now.   17 
AJ: How did your family experience that? 18 
CE: They were . . . theyre a little shaky on it. 19 
AJ: Youre still alive, they didnt kill you. 20 
CE: Right, yes.  Mostly positive.  Theyre kind of like, We dont get it, but we will be here to support 21 you.  And Im totally willing to explain it to them and sit down with them and say . . . Im willing 22 to help them get to that point of understanding. 23 
AJ: Oh, that is so awesome.  Because we know the research says that people with supportive 24 families are less likely to be murdered, less likely to be homeless, less likely to be unemployed, 25 and less likely to drop out of school, and all of those things. 26 
CE: Yeah, Ive very fortunate in that department.  Ive had a lot more support than I initially thought 27 I would  so its been positive. 28 
AJ: Well, being out less than a week you are very articulate around this issue.  Thank you for 29 sharing. 30 
CE: No problem. 31 
AJ: Is there one thing that you would want to share that I didnt ask? 32 
CE: I think another aspect of my life, this has kind of been particularly . . . its been very present in 1 my life.  Im an RA here on campus so Im working with students, Im working with other 2 students, and I have these residents that I want them to know that there is nothing wrong with 3 identifying this way because if . . . if Im out there and Im being who I am and Im living my life 4 the way I feel I should be living it, then other people are less afraid to come out also.  Im just 5 trying to do my best to be a good support system for others who need that.  Thats just kind of 6 the impact I want to have.  This part of my life is important, I guess. 7 
AJ: Thats incredible, Cal.  Thank you so much.  Good luck on this journey thats just beginning for 8 you. 9 
CE: Thank you. 10 
AJ: All right.  Bye-bye. 11 
CE: Cool. 12 

