Roddy’s legacy extends well beyond realm of mathematics

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This article was published 21/12/2017 (3069 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After a historic apology was delivered in the House of Commons for the injustices endured by federal LGBTQ employees, Green Party leader Elizabeth May paid tribute to a friend from Brandon not able to hear it.

“I do think transgender people — boy, do they need our support now. I lost a friend just,” she said, bowing her head to maintain composure, “in October, a wonderful mathematics professor at university of Brandon … was still suffering discrimination and injustice as a trans person.”

Although May, last month, portrayed the Prime Minister’s apology as a “wonderful moment for all those who are oppressed,” she continued, “we’re not there yet” when it comes to supporting transgender people. “We have not righted all the wrongs.”

She ended her address to applause, a standing ovation and hugs from colleagues.

May was remembering Susan Roddy, an esteemed mathematician and longtime professor who was a faculty member at Brandon University for 30 years.

She is missed by Stefon Irvine, who chairs the Brandon University LGBTTQ* Collective.

In a city like Brandon with a small, close-knit queer community, Irvine said members watch out for each other.

As such, Irvine and Roddy did not share the conventional professor-student relationship. They had deep conversations, speaking sometimes of their hardships, he as a queer man and she as a transgender woman.

The speech from May, Irvine felt, gave people permission to wrestle with the hard realities of transgender people and discrimination.

“Even as we led up to Trans Day of Remembrance (last month), we weren’t really sure if it was something that we were talking about,” Irvine said, “but I feel like Elizabeth May, speaking about it in the House of Commons, fully put it out there and allowed people to start having conversations about why. Why were there so many barriers in front of Susan and in front of other trans people? And how can we make that better?

“More and more students and queer people in Brandon have reached out, wanting to know a little bit more,” he continued. “A lot of people in Brandon, and in the queer community, didn’t know that she committed suicide.”

AN INQUISITIVE MIND

Roddy was an adept conversationalist. An inquisitive mind with a thirst for knowledge, conversations with her could run hours.

It was one of the traits Ruth Pryzner appreciated most about her friend.

One evening, Roddy visited Pryzner’s farm in the country. They got to her back porch, looking out at the moon. They talked about the mysteries of the universe, “all that might be and how it all came about,” Pryzner remembered.

“We drank a few beer, and woke up with the sun shining on our face in the morning,” Pryzner chuckled.

Outside their stimulating conversations, they shared an appreciation of the arts, taking in ballet shows or listening to music together. The two got together for barbecues and birthday parties.

“She would hang out, spend the night,” Pryzner said. “We’d have long conversations into the night about just about everything.”

Roddy was an esteemed scholar. An internationally renowned mathematician, she is celebrated for solving a problem involving ordered set theory. Her 1994 discovery became known as Roddy’s Theorem, a standard in textbooks on ordered sets.

In the years since, she’s kept learning and researching.

Pryzner recalled being shooed away from Roddy’s house because the mathematician was in the middle of proving some theorem and needed to focus. Understanding her friend’s curiosity, Pryzner stepped away.

Roddy deeply cared about her students, charitable endeavours including with Samaritan House Ministries and the environment, her friend said. On the latter point, she was a dedicated Green Party of Canada member, which is how she became a friend of May.

She was outspoken in her support of the LGBTQ community and was honest of the barriers faced by transgender woman like herself.

“She said to me one time, ‘I needed to do this for myself; I needed to bring my gender identity together with my body,’” Pryzner recalled, “but she said when I was a man at Brandon University, I was treated much, much better.”

Roddy endured “constant judgment.” Some people feared her since she was transgender, an explanation Pryzner never understood.

Pryzner referenced a quote, which states the greatest gift you can give another human being is to be truly seen and recognized for who they are.

“That’s the way I try to interact with people, I saw Susan and Susan saw me,” she said. “It didn’t happen in her daily life. She faced things at the university, from direct criticisms of the way she dressed, all the way through to being called a freak.”

Pryzner conceded the university cannot legislate morality, but wished more was done for her.

In response, the university indicated in a statement they couldn’t speak to allegations without specifics, but stated discrimination of any kind based on gender and gender expression is unacceptable and violates university policy.

BU held a memorial for Roddy after her death, attended by family and friends. The university issued a public statement mourning her death as well.

“We’re really proud of her advocacy and her support for the LGBTTQ* community,” said university spokesperson Grant Hamilton, describing Roddy as a passionate advocate for numerous initiatives on-campus. “She really challenged us as an institution and helped us move forward in many ways. That’s something that we really respect from her. She made us better.”

Pryzner said the discrimination and harassment Roddy faced as a trans individual “absolutely” contributed to her taking her life.

“Part of it is she was getting really tired of it, tired of carrying all the pain,” Pryzner said. “The one place that she had joy was with her students and teaching and sharing what she knew.”

The rates of suicide among transgender people are higher than the general public. A study released in 2016 by the National Centre for Transgender Equality in the United States found 40 per cent of the trans people surveyed had attempted suicide.

BRAVE AND GIVING

A decade ago, Trevor MacDonald met Roddy at a support group for transgender people in Winnipeg.

He considers her one of the most fascinating people he’s ever met.

“She didn’t just apply her analytical mind and her curiosity to her field of math … she was a person who was generally curious about the world. Any topic that you cared to talk about was interesting to talk with her about.”

He was fairly new to Winnipeg when they met.

“She was the kind of person who would say, ‘Oh, you need a bike? Here’s a bike.’” She was giving, too, of her time and energy, willing to talk to anyone who had a problem and offer help, MacDonald said.

He describes living as a transgender person to be difficult, especially for women. He likened it to visiting a restaurant and being served following people who arrived after you. If it happens once, you don’t worry. “But if that sort of thing happens to you every single day, and it happens at the grocery store and at the swimming pool and at the place where you work, so many times, it’s cumulative,” he said. “You can’t think that every thing is a coincidence.”

Kenneth Jackson, former chairperson of Brandon Pride, considers coming out as transgender “probably one of the bravest decisions I could think that a person could make.”

He’s appreciative of May giving light to Roddy’s challenges living out and proud.

“It puts forward the idea that we have somewhere that we have yet to go,” Jackson said. “I’m kind of hoping that’s Susan’s legacy, that her memory keeps reminding us of that.”

Corinne Mason, an associate professor in gender and women’s studies and sociology at BU, is hopeful Roddy’s life will serve as a reminder of how our society has strides to make.

“Anyone in our community who was connected to Susan and know the kind of things she went through on- and off-campus, I think we all owe her an apology,” Mason said. “We all owed her an apology much before her death.”

She remembered Roddy as being very caretaking of others.

She was organizing a potluck for Thanksgiving because she knew queer and trans students, in particular, would perhaps have nowhere to go.

“Even in the midst of everything that was going on for her, she was still reaching out and still making space for other people to try and ensure that people had somewhere welcoming to go for the holiday.”

Roddy died the weekend of Thanksgiving, before the potluck could be held.

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, please contact the 24/7 Manitoba Suicide Prevention and Support Line toll-free at 1-877-435-7170. The transgender crisis hotline is 1-877-330-6366.

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