Mattee Jim always knew she wasn’t like the other kids she went to preschool with.
“I felt I was a little girl instead of a little boy running around in jeans,” she said.
Jim, a transgender Navajo, shared her life story with students and community members at the Ethnic Center Foyer in Mesa Vista Hall on Monday. She said growing up different in Gallup presented constant challenges.
“I experienced transphobia at a young age,” Jim said. “In preschool, my teacher stuck me in a room with only boys’ toys. She had taken all the girls’ toys out and she left me there. For the whole hour and a half, I didn’t touch anything. I wanted to play with Barbies.”
Jim struggled to be accepted and faced discrimination at home and school. She said people who didn’t fit standard gender roles were venerated in Navajo society, but modern culture has changed.
Jim said she learned to defend herself at school. She said moving out of Gallup’s small-town environment to Los Angeles helped her gain confidence.
“I experienced homophobia, being pushed around, being called a faggot,” she said. “Little did they know how strong I was. I was this little queen running around fighting with little boys.”
Jim was born Manuel Alfred Jim, but will soon have her name legally changed to Mattee Alfreda Jim, she said.
“I’m the only son that got (my dad’s) middle name, Alfred,” she said. “Out of respect for my father, who’s gone now, I’m going to keep that middle name, but change it to Alfreda. Even though I felt that he wasn’t accepting, when he died, we had a closure. He’s still my father, so I’m going to honor him in that way.”
Jim works as the HIV prevention support services coordinator for First Nations Community HealthSource and oversees a Native American LGBTQ support group.
Christopher Ramirez, UNM Office of Equity and Inclusion project assistant, said he invited Jim to come speak at UNM to mark American Indian Heritage Month. He said he knew Jim for 12 years since their days promoting HIV prevention and LGBTQ organizing.
“She’s one of the few Native LGBTQ activists that I’ve met that has been very vocal and visible, both within her community and outside,” he said.
Ramirez said Jim was one of the first transgender activists raising awareness in Gallup.
“When I first met Mattee in 1998, she told me about organizing drag shows at the Best Western in Gallup,” he said. “In ’98! And to me that was phenomenal. She was doing that work in her community.”
Jim said transgenders face discrimination in society and at the institutional level, and that’s why she shares her experiences.
“People say they’re inclusive of certain populations, but when you get to the nitty-gritty, they are not,” she said. “Data collection — instead of just having ‘male and female’ — (they could) at least have the option of transgender in there.”
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Ramirez said Jim’s story is unique because she returned to Gallup and told her family, and friends know that she is transgender. He said a lot of people aren’t comfortable sharing their identity in the community they grew up in.
“There’s lots of folks that leave our communities in order to be able to come out, but she has gone through this process where she’s been able to do a complete circle — leaving her community and going back to her community,” he said.
