Pushing for Transgender Rights on a College Campus

My best friend in college is transitioning. He first came out as transgender to our close friends at the end of the spring semester of last year. He performed a piece in front of the incoming class of 2014 (about 750 people to be exact) about being a trans man on our campus. This led me to think and write about: how do you help trans-identified students on your college campus and what can you do?

Does your campus have gender-neutral bathrooms or housing? At Colgate, our only gender-neutral bathrooms can be found in the Center for Women’s Studies—no where else on campus can these restrooms can be found. What must it be like to be trans-identified and be forced to go into a bathroom because of your assigned sex, to not be comfortable in a bathroom of your choosing? As a student you can push for gender-neutral bathrooms working with your campus’ office of Residential Life. Look at your student handbook and learn about your campus’ housing policies and push for change.

What about gender-neutral housing? As a tour guide at Colgate, I get questions about gender-neutral housing and bathrooms all the time. Mostly from scared parents who don’t want male students living with their daughters and vice versa.  Last week, the Huffington Post reported that Columbia University was going to begin offering gender-neutral housing options. Administrators reviewed a proposal put together by a taskforce (student-led), they decided to go ahead with offering gender-neutral housing to provide a welcoming and inclusive opportunity for all members of the Columbia community. What progress. All campuses should offer gender-neutral housing—it seems like it would be a unique, awesome experience, but more importantly would provide safe and inclusive options for trans-identified college students.

Have any of you experienced similar problems? I pose this question because we do have a group of students at Colgate who are committed to working with the administration to provide gender-neutral living spaces and bathrooms, but the Residential Life policy, and the Board of Trustees, is our main problem.