Transcending WUSTL’s Ignorance
“Have you ever had a professor make a joke about your genitals?” Ricki asked, beginning our conversation about Wash U’s “staggering ignorance” concerning the transgender community. Ricki (who asked for her last name to not be published) has now graduated from Wash U. An advocate for transgender students who struggled every day on campus and off, she was a co-facilitator of Transcending Gender at Wash U, a student-run organization working as a support group for transgender students.
Federal guidelines concerning treatment of transgender students are based on Title VII, which states: “It shall be an unlawful…to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” Any person (transgender or cisgender) is legally required to not only be treated the same, but also to be offered equal “benefits” regardless of these aspects of their identity.
In 2014 the Department of Justice decreed that Title VII extended to gender identity. Obama’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2015 pronounced workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation illegal, but left a grey area as to whether gender was included. In fact, 30% of transgender people in the workforce reported being fired, denied a promotion, or experiencing some other form of mistreatment in the workplace due to their gender identity or expression (NTCE’s Transgender Survey, 2015). That’s one in three people. This legal nondiscrimination doesn’t address previous names being required for background checks or protect against de facto workplace discrimination. In July 2017, Trump’s administration removed these protections for the LGBTQIA+ community, stating that “Title VII does not bar sexual orientation discrimination” or “discrimination based on sex,” on the premise that men and women are already treated equally, making this protection redundant. Adding to the absurdity, Trump outlawed the CDC from using seven words including “vulnerable,” “diversity,” and, most concerning, “transgender.”
Statistics show that executive orders inflict real damage on individuals. In a 2015 survey performed by the National Center for Transgender Equality, 54% of respondents who were out or perceived as transgender while in school (K–12) were verbally harassed, 24% were physically attacked, and 13% sexually assaulted for being transgender. 17% experienced such severe mistreatment that they left school. 39% of respondents experienced serious psychological distress in the month prior to completing the survey, compared with only 5% of the U.S. population. Among the bleakest findings is the fact that 40% of the respondents had attempted suicide in their lifetime—nearly nine times the attempted suicide rate in the U.S. population (4.6%). One in twelve (8%) respondents who were out to their immediate family were kicked out of the house, and one in ten (10%) ran away from home. Finally, one in four (25%) respondents experienced a problem in the past year with their insurance related to being transgender.
In the past couple years, Wash U has been making slow but steady progress to get rid of antiquated policies that disadvantage or hurt transgender students. This effort, spearheaded by the club Transcending Gender, as well as Ricki herself, included implementing the preferred name policy. This policy was instituted recently, allowing students to easily change their names in the university system, only having to wait one business day for the administrative change to take place. This is especially important for transgender students who have not completed the legal paperwork to change their name and who wish to be named correctly on their student IDs, Blackboard, class rosters, and CAREERlink. The reason why this is so important for transgender students is because their birth names—alternatively called their “deadnames”—are a reflection of society misgendering them and forcibly assigning their birth name. Unfortunately, trans students’ deadnames still occasionally appear while logging into computers in the library and the mail service. Even in the case of a legal name change some email lists, Student Health Services records, and mailroom records have to be individually addressed and changed.
Housing rules changed as recently as 2014 due to efforts made by Ricki to allow trans students to room with other students of their gender. In 2012, her freshman year, Ricki was randomly assigned to room with a cisgender guy, but she moved in with a female sophomore year. This was before the more inclusive housing policy, and she had to explain to Reslife (the entity in charge of organizing student housing) that she did not want gender-neutral housing—she wanted female housing, because that is what she is. Female. Ricki confronted similar issues with SHS even after the implementation of the preferred name policy, since their system has both a student’s legal and preferred name. SHS reportedly called out her deadname repeatedly (or inexcusably even a feminized version of her deadname). This caused her to go alone to SHS to avoid people she knew hearing her get misgendered—she doesn’t even tell her friends her deadname. To address this gross misunderstanding of the preferred name policy, Ricki met with the Wash U medical and mental staff to help them learn how to help trans students. However, Wash U healthcare policies for trans students are still impossible to find online and are often described differently based on different people you ask. Additionally, a significant part of the preferred name policy is that it is implemented on every Wash U server, but deadnames also come up at random occurrences, which have to be fixed through individual emails and painful conversations.
[pullquote]She wanted female housing, because that is what she is. Female.[/pullquote]
Nevertheless, there have been professors who went above and beyond in the inclusion of transgender students in their classrooms. For example, her stage manager and professor, Gena Savoie, helped change an online discussion board that automatically posted with Ricki’s deadname (this was before the implementation of the Preferred Name Policy at Wash U). The goal is for people like Ricki’s stage manager not be standouts, but the norm. And if you are a cisgender student reading this: congratulations, you took the first step to become more informed. Through researching correct information that transgender students want cis people to know, you can avoid accidentally hurting the feelings of your transgender friend, family member, or acquaintance. Trans students have to deal with complications that cis students don’t even think about and therefore can unintentionally be insensitive about. As a student, for example, trying to study abroad becomes much more difficult when you don’t know if you could be targeted because of your gender identity. Even at home, though, trans people are not necessarily safe. Ricki confided that she was physically assaulted six days after the presidential election in November 2016 because her assailants “somehow found out” that she was trans. However, this is not an isolated occurrence—especially since Trump’s election, we have seen countless news stories about the discrimination and endangerment of trans people in the United States.
Some resources for a trans student at WashU include the National Center for Transgender Equality (not the Human Rights Council) and Transcending Gender at school. TG and Pride Alliance are both great resources for information, support, and a community. TG is anonymous and very easy to reach out to. Doctors like Dr. John Daniels at Barnes Jewish Hospital provide hormones to WUSTL trans students. Additionally, Travis Tucker (the assistant director for Leadership and LGBTQIA involvement) is an incredible resource for information and counseling at Wash U. Off campus, the Metro Trans Umbrella Group offers Trans 101Training, Q&A Panels, trans community meet-ups, and other events.
[pullquote]If you’re not having sex with a person, it wouldn’t matter one way or another what is happening down there.[/pullquote]
We have to address the ignorance in the Wash U community: cisgender people have to realize that some things that might seem like light banter can be incredibly harmful. To begin with, anyone making “light” jokes about a student’s genitals is not ok. How would you feel if a professor in one of your classes asked you intimate questions that qualify as sexual harassment? Instead, politely ask a person’s pronouns and Google answers to any questions you might have about transgender people. Check out the National Center for Trans Equality, Youtube, or Google—try to learn, and care enough, to know how to treat trans students as human beings. Don’t use the Human Rights Council website, because it is outdated, transphobic, and carries incorrect information. If you get to college never having encountered openly trans people, learn what you didn’t know before. If you mess up pronouns, don’t make it a big deal. Ricki said to me, “I wish ‘what are your pronouns’ was as common a question as ‘what is your name.’” Don’t ask your trans friend about being transgender—they have been asked the same questions a hundred times over. And don’t ever ask someone about their genitalia. If you wouldn’t ask a friend the color of their labia, or the girth of their penis, because that is a vulgar and personal question, don’t ask your trans friend whether they’ve had surgery or not. Honestly, if you’re not having sex with that person, it doesn’t matter one way or another what is happening down there.
[pullquote]How would you feel if a professor in one of your classes asked you intimate questions that qualify as sexual harassment?[/pullquote]
According to the NCTE survey, there is a growing acceptance by family members, colleagues, classmates, and other people in the respondents’ lives, and more than half (60%) of respondents who were out to their immediate family reported that their family was supportive of them as a transgender person. Lawmakers are beginning to fight back against Trump’s transphobic orders, such as the Defense Department, who began allowing transgender people to enlist in the military beginning January 1st. It’s a slow climb, but institutional and individual changes at Wash U will create a more accepting society.
Daria Locher ‘20 studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. She can be reached at daria.locher@wustl.edu.