This Arizona professor lets strangers ask him about being trans

Joseph Darius Jaafari, LOOKOUT

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This story was published in partnership with LOOKOUT, a nonprofit news outlet focused on LGBTQ+ accountability journalism in Arizona. Sign up for their newsletter here .

It’s hard to offend Eric.

He’s a father to a sassy child, a professor who guides often-skeptical college students, and a transgender man.

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From tasteless jokes to accusations of child grooming — both in person and, more broadly, in the media — Eric has “heard it all,” he says. And that makes him the perfect person for the project he’s been leading for the past eight months: answering uncomfortable questions about his gender identity.

Since the start of the year, Eric has traveled across