On a nice summer day in 1998, Dan Ginn, four years old, went to the back door window and looked out, feeling the heat of the simmering summer sun.

He saw his dad and brother working in the backyard, doing miscellaneous yard work, with their shirts off.

Ginn yelled to his mom, “I am going outside to help dad.”

His mom answered back, “Okay, sweetie.”

Ginn ripped off his shirt, threw it on the kitchen table, swung open the door, and slammed it shut: “boom.” Running full speed at his dad and brother, in that moment, he felt something; he felt free. As he got closer, he jumped right into place.

“What are we working on?” he said.

His dad and brother looked at each other and laughed.

“Hahaha. What are you doing?” his brother said.

“You know, you’re a girl, right?” his dad said.

He ran back in the house, with his head down, to put his shirt back on. At this moment, Ginn felt hopeless and helpless.

“It was very confusing as a kid, because as a kid, you don’t really understand gender in the same way,” Ginn said.

After a couple of years, Ginn was sure something was different about him.

In the fall of 2002, Ginn was struggling with one of the toughest decisions an 8-year-old can face: what to wear for school picture day. He jumped out of bed and knew he had to look nice for his mom, but also his classmates.

He threw shirts and pants all over his mom’s bathroom, trying on different types of clothing, but nothing felt right. This just kept bothering him; he wanted just the right outfit.

“Why can’t I find something I like?” Ginn said to himself in a frustrated tone.

Ginn finally landed on the perfect outfit: khakis, a crisp white shirt and a blue sweater vest — a combination that made him look on the outside how he felt on the inside: like a boy.

His mom approved his outfit, but wouldn’t let him go to school until he did his hair. She got the curling iron out. Ginn, at the time, didn’t want to, but he wanted to make his mom happy.

Looking at himself in the mirror, he felt something that day; it might have been warmth or love, but he didn’t know or even understand it. It was a feeling he would never forget. But would understand later down the road.

“I think, growing up over the next several years, I always knew that there was something different about me, but I didn’t really understand what it was, because I didn’t have the language and I didn’t have the exposure being in the small town I grew up in,” Ginn said.

Later in his high school years, he learned that language.

“Oh my gosh. Like, this makes sense,” Ginn said.

Ginn grew up in a small, primarily conservative town, Vanceburg, Kentucky. Once he arrived at Northern Kentucky University in 2012, he had more space. At 18, he fully understood the feelings he had his whole life; he knew it was time to transition.

During the fall semester, he began his social and physical transition.

“I slowly came out to friends and a couple family members during the fall semester of my freshman year, and then kind of started the process of, okay, I have to find a therapist, and I have to do all these things to in order to get signed off on, basically by a doctor, to be able to start taking the hormone replacement therapy,” Ginn said.

The hardest part was coming out to his dad; his parents got divorced, and he lived with his dad most of the time. His dad was someone he looked up to throughout his childhood, and he didn’t want to let him down.

“I went back home to see him on spring break of my freshman year, and we went out to dinner, and I kept trying to work up the nerve to tell him, and I couldn’t do it,” he said.

They pulled back into the driveway after getting back from dinner. Ginn was nervous. So nervous, he has since forgotten what he told his dad. But Ginn clearly remembers what his dad said in response.

“It’s all because of that school. You need to come back home, and everything will be fine again,” his dad said. “No one’s ever gonna love you.”

Ginn got out of the car and left. He was upset, feeling a mixture of sadness and anger. When he returned home, the conflict didn’t get better.

Even though most people in his hometown didn’t support him, he found a real welcome

 at Northern Kentucky University and made it his new home.

At the time, NKU was everything for him. He started going by a different name and pronouns.

Ginn said if it weren’t for all this support, he wouldn’t be where he is today. 

“They just wrapped me in a lot of love and care,” Ginn said.

When Ginn became a Presidential Ambassador, he told his advisor that he was transitioning. As a Presidential Ambassador, Ginn served the NKU community by volunteering at commencement, special events, campus tours and more.

The next time he saw University President Geoffrey S. Mearns, he, his wife and his family were referring to Ginn appropriately. This made him feel loved.

“‘I must not be this bad person or this bad thing,’” he said to himself.

Ginn met his wife, Cayley Ginn, when he was at NKU. She was a junior in high school and was the assistant director for the local children’s theater. Ginn’s niece and nephew were in Cayley Potter’s play, and he came to one of the shows.

“‘I gotta go back and talk to this girl,’” Dan Ginn said to himself in the theater, feeling something strong come over him. When he came back, Potter lit up like a Christmas tree.

“You’ve done great. My niece and nephew loved working for you,” Ginn said to Potter.

She responded, “Thank you, here is my number, let’s stay in touch.”

After a couple of months, the two were inseparable. Ginn says Potter was the most supportive throughout his transition. “She’s been the one who’s been there for me through most of everything,” Ginn said.

Now married, Cayley Ginn says watching her husband overcome issues and evolve as a human is one of the most profound moments she has felt with him.

“Overcome self-doubts that he has, building and finding his confidence and his professional identity, while also just getting to watch him grow, because we have been together now for 11 years, and we have pretty much grown up together,” Cayley Ginn said.

During his time at NKU, Dan Ginn met a lifelong friend, Nick Bliven. They met through the Presidential Ambassadors when Bliven wanted to get involved on campus.

Bliven was Ginn’s champion, pushing him to be the best.

Bliven says Ginn made a huge impact on him, pushing him out of his comfort zone.

“Being a cheerleader, always listening, pushing me out of my comfort zone and getting to try new things and just being a big advocate for all things Nick,” Bliven said.

About two years after he came out, Ginn joined a fraternity, Alpha Sigma Phi. He spoke with other fraternities before that, and they told him it wasn’t going to happen.

When Alpha Sigma Phi took him in, Ginn didn’t feel like an outsider; he felt just like any other member.

The only person who talked to him about being transgender was his little brother in the fraternity.

“Hey, I just want you to know I respect you and I love you, and this is something that I have a deeper respect for you for, just knowing your story,” his little brother told him.

Ginn felt the care and support from his fraternity, which helped him a lot.

“When you transition, sometimes being in male-dominated spaces is still a little bit uncomfortable and intimidating, because you don’t know how you’re going to be perceived,” Ginn said.

He saw a therapist and started taking hormone treatment. He grew a short beard. His voice deepened. He smiled a lot.

“Constant support around me, and I think that helped propel me through that tough part of my life where I didn’t feel like I had the support that I wanted from some of my family,” Ginn said.

After leaving NKU for graduate school and graduating, he came back to NKU and crossed paths with Rebecca Hamm, who is now assistant vice provost for student success.

At the time, Ginn wanted to work for NKU and Hamm was overseeing the advising center in the College of Informatics.

A position opened up for an academic advisor and Ginn became a finalist, ultimately getting the job. Hamm distinctly remembers Ginn’s interview.

“He was wearing a suit. I think he was wearing maybe an NKU tie of sorts, but Dan had a huge smile across his face, and he spoke about his love for NKU,” Hamm said.

Ginn told her: “I love NKU. I am passionate about NKU. This is an amazing place.”

This made Hamm smile throughout his interview, giving her a long-lasting impression of Ginn.

“When I think about Dan, I’m just thinking, ‘Gosh, he is such a proud supporter of NKU, loves this university and really believes in the work we’re doing,’ and that makes me think of him fondly,” Hamm said.

Today, Ginn works as a director of educational partnerships, a professor in communications, and is still a student, pursuing his doctorate.

He came back to NKU because he wanted to help the community that helped him. It feels like a full-circle moment.

“Coming here as a student and going through those experiences and really finding this to be a home that I needed, really in a big way, at the time when I was post-high school and going through a transition, and just needed a safe place to land. This was that home for me,” Ginn said.

He hopes to create opportunities for people who wouldn’t have them otherwise, and that they can just feel supported through whatever it is they’re going through.

Ginn cares for every student who walks through his door, which his wife  sees every day.

“He loves all of his students and he is so proud of all of them. He starts supporting them by building connections with them, that is very important to him as an educator,” Cayley Ginn said. “He learns every single student’s name. When we’re walking to the car to go home, we’ll pass a student that he has worked with and he makes sure to address them by name, ask them how they’re doing.”

With the work he does for the Young Scholars Academy, he is a proven leader rising to the top. He hosts many events and sets students up for the next chapter in their lives.

“How is everyone doing?” Ginn says as he steps up on stage to host a YSA event.

Even though he stands just five feet tall, he fills the room with his personality and his energy.

“First group to show me a picture of your team gets the point,” Ginn said

As teens bolt towards him; they back him up towards the wall. He is calm and unfazed.

“Group five got the point,” he said.

Ginn reflects on his time by looking back at his transition.

“There [are] so many things that person would need to hear,” Ginn said with an emotional pause, “If I could tell myself just be patient and see it through and know that people do care. Even when they were showing it to me, it was hard to see just because of that internal dialog.”

Ginn said his goal was always to come back to NKU and reinvest in the people.

“This is the community that built me…the reason I keep showing up each day, and the reason that I continue to want to invest in this community is because I believe in what’s possible here for students,” he said. “I saw what happened for me and for so many of my peers, and now I get to see it every day for students inside and outside the classroom.”