Alex Poon | |
---|---|
Born | 1992 |
Alma mater | Wellesley College, 2014 |
Known for | transgender advocacy |
Alex Poon is an American transgender advocate.
Poon graduated from Wellesley College (a women's college) in 2014, where he majored in computer science. [1] [2] He came out as transgender as a sophomore. [3] He was the first out transgender person to win the annual hoop rolling race since it began in 1895. [1] [4] [5] [6] His mother, Helen Poon, also won when she was a senior at Wellesley in 1982. [1] [2] [5]
Poon is Chinese-American and grew up in Virginia. [3] [7] [8] He attended Holton-Arms School, an all-girls high school, where he was captain of the girls' swim team and the men's water polo team at a local all-boys school. [3] [7]
Poon has been interviewed for news stories about transgender students, including trans women and non-binary people, at women's colleges. [3] [7] [9]
Poon works as a product manager at a technology company and does occasional public speaking and interviews about gender in the workplace. [8] [10] [11] He talks about having been perceived as both a man and a woman in the workplace, giving him a unique perspective on discrimination and sexism. [8] [11] In 2019, he said that his work at IBM was undervalued before he transitioned to male, but afterwards, he was given "a seat at the table". [11] He told The Washington Post that after his transition, "People now assume I have logic, advice and seniority. They look at me and assume I know the answer, even when I don't. I've been in meetings where everyone else in the room was a woman and more senior, yet I still got asked, 'Alex, what do you think? We thought you would know.'" [8]
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