Alston-Smith’s sorority sisters had a pronoun problem.
From the time that Devin Alston-Smith became involved in George Washington University’s Zeta Phi Beta sorority, he made it clear that he was not your typical sorority sister. In spring 2008, Alston-Smith began what Zetas refer to as the “intake process.” He knew his sisters would have a lot to take in: He asked them to call him Devin instead of his legal name, Chanise. He told them he preferred male pronouns—”he” and “his” instead of “she” and “her.” At sorority events, he wore a button-down shirt and tie and a fedora over his long dreadlocked hair.
The sorority’s sisters were initially welcoming, friendly, and confused. At the initiation ceremony, all sisters were required to dress in head-to-toe white. Alston-Smith had white pants, shirt, and tie, but he didn’t have any white shoes, so one Zeta offered to buy him a pair. He told her he wore men’s shoes, size 6½. She returned with white women’s flats. “I tried to get a low heel,” the Zeta explained.
“That’s when I sort of knew that they didn’t really get it,” says Alston-Smith. He wore the women’s shoes anyway, the flats uncomfortable on his feet. “I felt degraded, like I was dressing in drag or something,” he says. “I know that all my signifiers, except for my clothes, indicate that I’m female. So I try to be really understanding.”
Alston-Smith had never intended to become anybody’s sister. “I was anti-sorority for a long time,” says Alston-Smith. “Then I joined Zeta.” During his sophomore year, Alston-Smith kept running into one senior Zeta around campus. She told him, “I’m a Zeta. You should come to our events and check us out,” he says. He did, and the historically black sorority’s commitment to “Service, Scholarship, Sisterhood, and Finer Womanhood” surprised Alston-Smith—he actually liked it. He had trouble getting his sisters to refer to him consistently with male pronouns, or truly understand what it meant to be transgender, but he knew they were making an effort. Only one Zeta, junior Vanessa White, appeared visibly uncomfortable with Alston-Smith’s presence. “A lot of the members were really nice and open individuals,” he says. “I felt like they were the most open sorority on campus.”
That spring, Zeta Phi Beta extended Alston-Smith an offer of membership into the sorority. At his campus debut as a Zeta, which the sorority calls a “coming out show,” Smith and his fellow inductee, or “line sister,” Shauna Butler, performed a step routine the two had choreographed for the audience. This time, the wardrobe was Alston-Smith’s choosing, down to the blue-and-white Converse shoes. The routine ended with Alston-Smith’s official “unveiling” in front of his fellow sisters, the sorority’s graduate chapter, his friends, and his mom. At the big reveal, the sorority president pulled the tape off of Alston-Smith’s backward hat, exposing the nickname his sisters had chosen for him: “The Liberator.”
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Way more different than men who see themselves as members of a sorority.
...or is it?
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