Jeanne Smith stood, not sat, at the counter of Bikesmiths, her bicycle shop.
She always stands. It feels natural and she’s always on the move.
She has been a mechanic and a clown. She’s worked a root beer stand and ran for Congress in 1996. Now she is a transgender activist, part-time Uber driver and owner of Bikesmiths.
“I just do whatever the heck I feel like doing,” Smith said.
Smith came out as a transgender woman nine years ago, which she said influenced the political causes she chooses to support. Smith said she lives in fear because transgender people have no rights. They can be thrown out of any store or not served food. They can be refused service at a hotel or refused a job application, and there are no legal repercussions.
Because of this, she traveled to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia as a Bernie Sanders delegate in July.
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During the Obama administration, the LGBT community was granted rights without the community having to put up a fight. Smith said this is because the Republicans were too distracted by the Obama presidency.
Smith said she ran to be a delegate this year because Republicans are trying to halt transgender rights by pushing the bathroom issue. Republicans will use whatever tactics they can to stop LGBT rights from advancing, including scaring families, she said.
Though Smith knew she would not get elected when she ran for Congress in 1996, she said she would achieve her goal if a politician picked up one of her ideas. Smith said the platform she ran with then is about a 75 percent match with Sanders’ platform.
“The day has come with Bernie,” she said.
Her goal as a delegate was to accurately represent Sanders supporters. Though Sanders was not nominated, Smith said she still stands by him and she hopes the Democratic Party recognizes that he changed the platform.
Smith said she is now voting for Hillary Clinton, and she will do anything to prevent Donald Trump from getting elected.
Trump as president would not in itself be bad, she said. However, it is likely the Republicans would be in power across all government branches. When the Republican Congress passes anti-LGBT bills, Trump would not veto them, which scares her, she said. Trump would also have the opportunity to appoint at least one Supreme Court justice, which could change the course of history and affect at least the next two generations, Smith said.
Smith said Clinton has no chance of winning Indiana, so she will try to exchange her vote online with a Jill Stein supporter in a swing state.
Through this, Smith would go to her poll and vote for Jill Stein, while the voter she exchanged with would go to their poll and vote for Clinton. She will do whatever she can to ensure Trump is not elected, Smith said.
When it comes to her life as a transgender woman, Smith said those closest to her have struggled the most with her identity.
Most of her family is dead, so they were not a concern. However, Smith lost her marriage when she came out. Smith and her ex-wife are still best friends and talk everyday, but their marriage is “no longer,” she said.
Adam Rodkey, manager at Bikesmiths, has known Smith for 11 years and saw her go through her transition.
He said the first change he noticed was that Smith shifted from wearing the typical bike industry outfit of a t-shirt and shorts to wearing baggier shirts. At first, Rodkey said he was surprised when Smith came out because she exhibited strong male characteristics and habits, like mechanics. When she first came out, the male and female versions of Smith were two separate people, he said, but after many years they are now one in the same.
“It’s kind of weird, but I don’t care,” Rodkey said.
Bloomington is a liberal, welcoming community, so most residents do not care that Smith is transgender, Rodkey said.
“It’s Bloomington, you can let your freak flag fly here,” Rodkey said.
Martha Hilderbrand, a Bernie Sanders delegate who attended the DNC with Smith, said that Smith is passionate and active in the community.
Smith and Hilderbrand both belong to the hula-hooping troupe the Hudesucker Posse. Hilderbrand said Smith is an expressive person who loves to try new tricks in dancing and hooping.
Since coming out, Smith said she has only experienced five discriminatory acts.
The worst of these occurred at Lowe’s in Bloomington. Smith was renovating her house, and she estimated she’d spent about $8,000 at the store so far when she walked in one day and was taunted by two employees. Smith ignored their laughter and approached them because they were employees and she had a question about merchandise. When she came up to them, one ran out the front door and the other ran into the store. Smith complained to the manager multiple times, but he didn’t want to do anything about the discrimination. He made her describe the situation in public instead of allowing her to talk to him in private in his office, she said.
Since then, Smith said she has personally boycotted the store.
Though she is 6-foot-4, Smith generally passes for female in person, but she is always mistaken for male over the phone, she said. When situations like this happen, Smith said she is the one that feels guilty when she is discriminated against or doesn’t pass as female.
“If I don’t pass, I see it as a personal failure on my part,” Smith said. “I’m disappointed in myself that I don’t present female well enough to be seen as female.”
However, Smith said she keeps herself centered by focusing on activism. She loves to talk politics, and is active in many Sanders and Democratic Facebook groups.
Smith said she was unhappy when she noticed that one Sanders Facebook group she was in was changed to a Jill Stein group without warning. Smith posted to ask why the group was changed, and she got into a fight with the page administrators.
“It’s bogus, so I started to troll them,” she said.
After a few days, Smith was blocked from the page.
“I consider it a badge of pride,” she said. “I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing, which is whatever the heck I want.”
