She says that she decided not to jump, and instead let him hit her until she was bleeding. In the end, I realized that I was the one who would stay in imperfect situations and try to fix them. She wore a long-sleeved shirt to cover the bruises and made up an excuse for any teacher who might notice. None did, she says.(Her father refuted the claims when she reached him by email. She claims that I beat her when she was a child, after I discovered that she was transgender. This is sad, he wrote. Multiple people who have known Zhang from high school to today confirmed her story of her abusive father.I would be betray my core identity if I gave up on them and abandoned them.She decided to change her major in college and her father divorced her. She soon learned that being perceived as a woman was not always the best thing. I understood exactly how people treated me when I thought I was a man. She says it was quite different.After being accepted to the top physics PhD programs, she decided to go to Princeton University. During orientation, the person who was giving the tour of the machine shop made false assumptions about her incompetence and repeatedly singled her out. She said it was my official introduction into Princeton.The sexism got worse from there. A male graduate student started to harass and stalk her almost immediately. She chose a biophysics thesis advisor to help her cope. This allowed her to conduct research in another building and escape her harasser. She wasn't interested in biophysics. It didn't matter if she was doing so for other reasons, her interest and passion in physics eventually ceased.After three years, she was deeply unhappy and decided to quit the program. However, she did not stop reporting harassment to the university. She recalls that they were like, It's your word against his. You will probably understand why I meticulously documented everything I gave Julia. I didn't want the chance to be in another "he said, she said" situation.(A Princeton spokesperson stated that he could not comment on individual cases but reiterated the university's commitment to supporting anyone who has been victim to sexual misconduct or harassment.
