Luke, a member of the class of 2004, changed a lot during college. In the spring of his junior year - when he was still Ayshe, a female student who identified as lesbian - Luke was studying in Cuba, where he was frequently mistaken for a male. Looking back on the experience, Luke said, "It did speed up the process of me identifying as trans because it was in my face every day: 'Are you male? Are you female?'" During a year off Luke spent working with queer youth in Providence, he changed his name to Luke and began encouraging people to refer to him as male. Luke returned to Brown as a he.
The Herald has withheld Luke's last name for privacy reasons.
But unlike others who have made this transition before him, Luke made sure that Brown changed with him.
Almost immediately after returning to campus, Luke began advocating for a gender-neutral housing option for incoming first-years. In March 2004, Brown announced that incoming first-years would have the option of living in gender-neutral housing.
"I had wanted to do something around trans issues, but I had felt like I was the only one who really cared," Luke said. But upon returning to Brown this year, he said he "found an awesome group of people who really want to do work around trans and other issues."
Assistant Dean of Student Life James Stascavage said Luke's involvement in the issue of gender-neutral housing has been "extremely important."
"Luke has been remarkably helpful in fostering a discussion in at least the administration, including the senior administration, about transgender issues. His work has really pushed the discussion forward, and with that discussion has come a lot of education."
Luke said he wanted to institute a way for new students to easily request gender-neutral housing without necessarily having to identify themselves as transgender because he said, "when you're struggling with identity issues you don't always feel empowered to go battle with administrators." A gender-neutral housing option is useful not only for transgender students, he said, "but queer students as well because they can be sure to live with someone who's comfortable with their lifestyle."
Lately, Luke's interest in issues of gender identity has found expression in another medium - film. He is currently working on a movie, funded by a fellowship from the Swearer Center for Public Service, which he said "combines documentary and sexually explicit film in order to open up a conversation about female to male transgender people and sexuality, and how we express ourselves sexually given all the gender issues."
Luke found the subjects for his movie at conferences, through friends and over the Internet. The project, which he hopes to market at festivals and in stores, should be finished by the beginning of the summer.
Luke previewed a 12-minute clip from his movie at the April 17 WhamBamTrans Arts Fest in Pawtucket, a festival he conceived and organized. The festival showcased spoken word and musical performances, as well as film screenings and other visual art pieces by artists hailing everywhere from New York and Boston to California, St. Louis and the Dominican Republic.
Dan Bassichis '06, who also helped organize the event, said the festival "was about centralizing the voices and artistic expressions of queer and trans people," and allowing them to address a wide range of issues.
Luke's activism generally tends to look beyond the scope of Brown's campus. Bassichis said Luke's work has "helped to bridge a lot of the gaps between Brown and the Providence community."
And the connections Luke has forged will not disappear after graduation or after he leaves Providence. Claire Caleshu '06, who worked with Luke on both the gender-neutral housing and on the art festival, called him an "instigator," and said he has set precedents through his work in the community by creating more institutionalized mechanisms for continued action and change. She said that, as demonstrated by the C.V. Starr Fellowship funding his film, Luke is consistently "community-minded" in using the resources and opportunities available to him.
Luke's final year at Brown has been a particularly productive one. "I was always active in organizing on campus, but this year I have been more so. I feel more like I don't have anything to lose. I feel more empowered to do something about the things I care about. There are also awesome people on campus who want to do this sort of work, which inspires me," he said.
