Bergman will be touring college campuses and other locations throughout the year to explain gender.

“(I believe) it’s my responsibility to participate in the mending of the world,” Bergman said. “This is what I’m good at — performing, educating and speaking. I’m good at explaining and inspiring. I like having the opportunity to do something I care about.”

The workshop, “Storytelling as a Survival Skill and other Tranny Lessons,” taught people how to use theater as a tool to understand gender and sexuality, said Michelle Nickerson, a psychology senior who helped plan the event.

Bergman also led a lecture called Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Gender at noon Thursday in Erickson Hall Kiva.

The lecture, which drew about 20 students and faculty, focused on the importance of looking beyond the typical male and female sexes, Gonzalez said.

“It’s interesting to hear a firsthand account of a person who identifies differently than what we see gender expressed as,” she said. “Our system continually wants to push people toward female or male, when in reality there is a whole spectrum of people who identify with different sexes.

“There are more than two sexes, and they occur enough to classify them as a different sex.”

Gonzalez said the lecture was very small, welcoming and allowed for people to ask questions and share personal experiences.

People who are seen as minorities go through traumatizing experiences throughout their lives, she said.

Learning how to take those experiences and turn them into something positive that will help shape future experiences is special, she said.

Uri Donnet, chairperson of TransAction, which helped sponsor the event, said Bergman’s lecture was informative to students.

“It was a good turnout for a noon lecture,” Donnet said. “(Bergman) sounded like a really good speaker.”