SSAOs must be committed to creating safe,
supportive environments for transgender staff
and should support training about gender identity and expression at the unit and campus level.
Given the fears transgender employees have
about transitioning during employment or being
out at work, such training is a priority. Across
the country, we have seen many forms of effective education initiatives such as inviting
nationally regarded educators, creating transgender ally networks, offering transgender
awareness weeks, and providing workshops on
transgender employment concerns.
During the mid-1990s, we supported campus
“GLB” resource centers and campus faculty and
staff “GLB” groups by adding the “T.” While
these efforts were crucial, without aggressive
education and action GLBT organizations often privilege “gay
male” and “lesbian female” individuals, marginalizing transgender and bisexual faculty, staff, and students. Institutional
leaders should not automatically assume a high degree of
transgender expertise and experience from faculty, staff, or
students. Instead, they should be considered partners and
allies in mutual self-assessment of educational training needs
for the support and inclusion of transgender employees. All
parties should be reminded that some transgender individuals
do not identify as members of GLBT communities.
It is critical that SSAOs advocate for the inclusion of transgender health concerns in staff insurance packages.
Name Changes
The processes and standards for making legal name changes
vary greatly by state of residence. While the desire to make a
name change is most often expressed by transsexual staff,
genderqueer or gender variant individuals may wish to make
such changes as well. To respond to these needs, SSAOs can
advocate that their institutions create streamlined processes for
coordinating name and gender changes on all human resource
and personnel records, faculty and staff directories in print
and electronic formats, and identification cards and badges.
Campus human resource offices may be the logical units to
coordinate such functions. Personnel documentation that
requires staff designate “male” or “female” can be altered to be
inclusive of transgender persons through a single fill-in-the-blank space. Campus units often collect gender data
automatically without thoughtful rationale. When creating
such forms, staff should be encouraged to consider a number
of questions: Why do we need this information? What will it
be used for? Who will have access to it?
Restrooms and Locker Rooms
Transgender staff often express great concern about the safety
of campus “male” or “female” designated restrooms and locker
rooms. In these settings, failure to conform to physical and
social norms for gender expression—being genderqueer in
identity or in a form of gender transition—puts staff at risk
for harassment and violence. On some university campuses,
transgender individuals have even been arrested or issued citations for using the “wrong” restroom. Transgender staff have
told us that they simply choose to stop using campus fitness
facilities that do not offer private changing areas or shower
facilities. To remove these barriers, SSAOs can support the
creation of gender-neutral restrooms
that are lockable with single stalls and
the renovation of locker rooms to
include private changing and shower
facilities. Gender neutral restrooms not
only benefit transgender individuals,
but also families, persons with disabilities who have caregivers of different
genders, and international individuals
who may have different standards for
restroom privacy.
Health Care Support
With few exceptions, gender-related surgery and hormone
support are not covered by campus health insurance programs
for faculty and staff. Many campuses have responded by
ensuring that human resource personnel are aware of local and
regional transgender-affirming health care providers and counselors to meet general health care needs of transgender staff.
Often, such resource guides are available through or developed in collaboration with the campus LGBT resource center.
Anti-discrimination Policies
Only a handful of states and less than 125 colleges and
universities include gender identity and expression in non-discrimination laws. At the very least, transgender people
should be protected from discrimination by institutional
policy. (For a full discussion of transgender policy issues in
higher education, please see Gender Identity and Sexual
Orientation: Research, Policy, and Personal Perspectives: New
Directions for Student Services, No. 111 (Jossey-Bass, 2005).
Anti-discrimination policies help protect transgender staff
from harassment, prohibit exclusion from hiring and job
promotions, and ensure access to campus housing, activities,
and organizations. Further, these policies help legitimize trans-
