Hey there!

My name is Kendra Richards Ohmann, and my pronouns are she/her. I’m a first year graduate student in the Writing Studies and Rhetoric program here at Saint Cloud State University, and my first degree was in English: Literature, Language, and Culture at the University of Minnesota Duluth. I graduated in 2010, and have spent the last ten years working hard to support my husband while he got his PhD. He’s now a professor of computer science at CSB/SJU, so now it’s my turn to advance my education!

I work full time at the Liturgical Press on the Saint John’s University campus as a publishing assistant, and I also work part time at my ELCA Lutheran church as the Worship and Music Coordinator. In my spare time I like to golf, read, bowl, watch movies, play board games, bike, hike, and sing. Random things that I’m into are Star Trek, Genealogy research, Doctor Who, and history–particularly the Civil War, but I love it all.

What this Project and the Trans Community Mean to Me

Ulysses said a lot of wonderful things in his introduction, and I share a lot of his hopes for the purpose and mission of this project. I’m a cis white woman and will not pretend to know what it’s like to be trans. But I hope to be counted among the community as an ally, and as much as I want to advocate for the community and spread awareness and education, I also hope to learn a lot myself.

I have a ten-year-old trans Godson, the firstborn child to my best friend, Mandy. Born Lucy, he was welcomed into the world as a girl and promptly adorned with pink and purple headbands, ribbons, and tutus. It didn’t take long, though, for Mandy to realize that she was not given and girly girl–that she was not, in fact, given a girl at all. It took seven years for Luca to finally be his true self, and the process that his family went through to help make that happen is what motivated me to propose this project. First of all, Mandy and her husband, Devin, didn’t have any idea where to go. Even when they found the right places and resources, there was a lot of hesitation and everything was so new. It was clear to me with their journey that we need more practical resources, acceptance, and awareness for trans individuals and their families and allies. They need support, they need to be heard, and they need to be loved.