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Alex Myers: Revolutionary

2,363 views · Published 3 February 2014 · 37:03 · Indexed 12 November 2026

Channel: GBH Forum Network · 2014 · Education

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Harvard Book Store is pleased to welcome teacher, activist, and Harvard alum Alex Myers, the first openly transgender student at Harvard University, for a discussion of his novel Revolutionary.

In 1782, during the final clashes of the Revolutionary War, one of our young nation's most valiant and beloved soldiers was, secretly, a woman.

When Deborah Samson disguised herself as a man and joined the Continental Army, she wasn't just fighting for America's independence—she was fighting for her own.

Alex Myers is a writer, teacher, speaker, and activist.  Born and raised in Paris, Maine, Alex was raised as a girl (Alice) and left Maine to attend boarding school at Phillips Exeter Academy.  At Exeter, Alex came out as transgender, returning his senior year as a man after attending for three years as a woman, and was the first transgender student in that Academy's history.  After Exeter, Alex earned his bachelor's at Harvard University, studying Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and living in the Dudley Co-op.  Alex was also the first openly transgender student at Harvard and worked to change the University's nondiscrimination clause to include gender identity. Subsequent to earning a master's degree in religion at Brown, Alex has pursued a career in teaching English at secondary schools.  He completed his Master's of Fine Arts in fiction writing at Vermont College of Fine Arts, where he began his work on Revolutionary.  He currently teaches English at St. George's School, where he lives with his wife and two cats.

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