During Mason Kort’s sophomore year, he realized something with his body that wasn’t right. Kort felt like his appearance and the way he acted wasn’t like the other females around him.

“At the time I didn’t know what being transgender meant and that it was even an option. I used Google to find a lot of questions I had, but my friend Justice Johnson helped me out a lot. We talked for two days and discovered a lot of stuff about each other. We both knew we weren’t straight, but we talked about a bunch of gender stuff,” Kort said.

When Kort decided to transition there was a lot of mixed feedback he got. First, he had to tell people about wanting to transition and wanting to use different pronouns when referring to himself. Many people supported him being gay, but didn’t support the final transition.

“My mom at first was very confused, but she’s become my number one support system,” Kort said.

Finally doctors must make sure your hormones, iron levels and vitamins are healthy with the biggest factor being your mental state. The final choice when you are approved to transition is what type of prescription you want to take.

“I chose to take a shot because it is the safest and most effective,” Kort said.

Now Kort is President of the Impact Club and helps others like himself stay protected and educated. He plans discussions for the group about unsupportive people in their lives. They talk about how to protect oneself during sex-ed classes for LGBT couples.

Kort dresses in traditional male clothing and is becoming more comfortable with himself every day.