Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Dylan Scholinski came into the world as Daphne Scholinski.
However, he came to a packed Alderson Auditorium Monday to talk about his experiences growing up in a mental hospital after being diagnosed at 15 as an “inappropriate female.”
The artist and author of “The Last Time I Wore a Dress: A Memoir,” spoke about playing baseball instead of with dolls, read excerpts from his book and shared slides of the artwork he was inspired to create after being harassed about not being lady-like.
Photo by Lisa Lipovac
Dylan Scholinkski elaborates on sections from his novel "The Last Time I Wore a Dress: A Memoir." The book relives the story of Scholinkski's teenage years in a mental institute. Scolinkski was admitted because he was diagnosed as an "inappropriate female." The February Siser Association and Queers and Allies hosted the event last night at Alderson Auditorium.
“My goal in life is to create a more passionate society,” Scholinski said. “No two people are alike and we spend an enormous amount of energy to fit into two categories; There’s a much wider spectrum.”
He said he was lucky to be speaking about his life because he said the same trials he faced occur to thousands of people in this country.
He talked about spending his entire high school life locked in a hospital and how he felt ashamed when people around him would talk about their high school experiences.
“I made up a story to hide what happened to me during that time,” Scholinski said. “I need to find a way to express myself or I was going to die.”
Scholinski said he was released from the mental hospital at 18 because his insurance dried up.
Now 40 years old, he recalled the instance growing up when he left his dad in a grocery store to use the restroom. As he attempted to enter the women’s room, a clerk reprimanded him and told Scholinski to let him speak with his dad.
“The clerk said, ‘We found your son in the women’s bathroom,’” he said.
He said he hasn’t used a women’s restroom in eight or nine years, since one in Memphis was closed and he was forced to use the men’s room. He said most people don’t realize how privileged they are to not have to consider those kinds of simple details in their daily lives.
He also spoke out against violence towards transgendered people.
“I’ve never been found out in a bathroom,” he said. “There’s a good chance I’d get the shit kicked out of me or raped but ... so far so good.”
Slides of his artwork ranged from pictures from inside the mental hospital to drawings he made of crime scenes while in college, all of which he considers a self-portrait.
Catherine Cowan, Topeka, was joined by her girlfriend Ana Maldonado, Topeka, at the lecture. The couple said they drove to the lecture after hearing about it from a friend who attends the University.
“I’ve read about things like this but it was interesting to hear it from a person firsthand,” Cowan said.
The lecture was part of the 2007 February Sisters Forum.
Kansan staff writer Tyler Harbert can be contacted at tharbert@kansan.com.
— Edited by Joe Caponio
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