Leading The Way

I went to graduate school at the University of Connecticut and one of the things that I liked was that they were very supportive of trans people. Basically the Rainbow Center sent out a Dear Colleague” letter to the faculty and staff.

Gender Diversity Inclusion in the Classroom
Dear Faculty and Staff,

Thank you for your interest in contributing to an inclusive classroom for UConn’s diverse community of gender identities and expressions, particularly those who are transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary students.  Often they are misgendered and mistreated in the classroom which feels like a hostile learning environment.  Misgendering could include not only using the wrong pronouns, but utilizing only binary language like “you guys,” sir, ma’am, policeman, fireman and others (Instead, use language such as “you all,” folks, everyone, police officer, firefighter, etc.).  Not only is gender identity a protected class in the state of Connecticut, but diversity is a critical component of our mission and values at UConn.

The Rainbow Center community would like to create a new campus norm where everyone shares their pronouns with their name, including cisgender people.  I have my pronouns on my syllabus, team roster, name tag, door tag, e-mail signature and even my UConn business card. However, gender diversity inclusion involves more than pronouns. Please take a brief moment to learn about facilitating a gender diversity inclusive classroom by watching the video and reading a brief article titled: Supporting Transgender Students in the Classroom.

They also list other campus resources for trans students.

They also have a “Gender Transition Guidelines” to help students, faculty, and staff in their transition and I have a number of training sessions for healthcare providers and just last week I did training for the Student Union’s student employees. And during the training one of the student felt comfortable enough to come out as trans. This Friday I am giving a lecture for a social work class that one of my former professor teaches.

When I applied to the School of Social Work my transcripts from my undergraduate school had my old name on it, the admission office had a question about my old name but once I explained it they were okay.