Kempsville High salutatorian Evelyn Gallaher stood at the podium in June, looking out at her classmates, their families and her teachers.
She opened her speech with a familiar refrain: High school is a place to form lifelong friends, find community and grow your voice. Gallaher did that in the Scholastic Bowl, drama club and marching band, joking about playing the piccolo, “the piercing and obnoxiously high-pitched flute-looking thing,” while holding her hands up to demonstrate the instrument.
Gallaher’s high school experience, she told the audience, was also defined by her experience as a transgender teen. She is Kempsville High’s first transgender salutatorian, a proclamation in her speech that was met with thunderous applause.
“When I said that, the entire room lit up,” the 18-year-old said. “To get that kind of reaction to get that kind of validation of like, ‘your story is worth telling, and this is significant, and we are also proud of you, and we are happy about this.’ It was just everything I needed to hear.”
At a time when advocacy groups are reporting more attacks on trans and gender non-conforming people, it was an important moment of what Gallaher described as “trans joy.”
Transitioning into a confident teen
Gallaher grew up in Virginia Beach and loves creative hobbies, such as writing short stories and music. She plays the flute and piccolo and aspires to play the clarinet one day. She likes astronomy and uses the telescope her grandparents gave her as a child.
Gallaher received a full-ride scholarship to study astrophysics and music performance.
She knew at about 12 that she was trans and came out to her mom at 14. Her mom was supportive and helped her get on hormones, a process that took about two years.
While she had already begun transitioning socially, was dressing more feminine and taking vocal lessons, Gallaher felt hormones could help her better process her feelings.
The waiting period “felt like an eternity,” Gallaher said, and compounded her physical and emotional dysmorphia.
“Without a supportive family, that journey would be much more difficult or impossible,” she said. “I wouldn't say happiness as a trans person is dependent on a supportive family, but it helps.”
She knows there are misconceptions about being trans, but she welcomes respectful curiosity and said people learn the most when they have a conversation with her. Ultimately, Gallaher wants people to know she’s happy with who she is and is surrounded by supportive friends and family.
“If I was born again and got to choose, I would choose to be a trans girl every single time, again and again and again, because I think being a trans girl is so beautiful.”
Leaving a legacy
By the start of her junior year, Gallaher said she wasn’t “immediately thrown into a utopia,” but finally felt like she had the tools and was in a place where she could process her identity.
She grew more confident and assertive. As a senior, she was the Scholastic Bowl captain and she mentored two younger flute players in marching band. Gallaher taught a freshman how to run the sound board for the drama club and wrote, composed and arranged music for one of the school’s plays.
“I left behind so many different intertwining legacies,” she said. “All of them having to do with the fact that I'm a trans woman who did all of those things, and I did them confidently.”
Gallaher knew in the fall she was in the running for valedictorian or salutatorian. By May, she was deemed salutatorian and was told she would be sharing the stage with one of her best friends, Olivia Wang.
For her speech, Gallaher wanted people to know her truth: Things had been tough, but she was proud of who she is and thankful for the experience she gained at Kempsville High. Standing at the podium was nerve-wracking, but the reaction to her speech – applause and cheering – gave her joy.
“I couldn't have asked for a better ending to high school,” she said. “I’m just so glad I got to experience that. That will always live in my heart as the start of my life.”
Virginia Beach City Public Schools is a member of the Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Association, which holds WHRO’s license.
