Rachel Allen
rallen19@uwyo.edu
Earlier this year the nondiscrimination ordinance was passed in the city of Laramie and gender-neutral bathrooms were added to the new Half Acre Gym on campus, but one issue that doesn’t get addressed is the proper use of preferred pronouns.
***** A correction needs to be made to the I-80 safety article that was published on September 30. Freshman, Seth Edwards, was quoted as having “a four and a half hour commute to his home in Colorado Springs.” This should have been “their home,” as Edwards identifies as nonbinary. *****
A nonbinary individual is someone who doesn’t identify as part of the gender binary, which consists of male and female genders. When asked how they would describe their gender to a stranger, Edwards said, “It really has nothing to do whatsoever with my genitals, but just as far as simply living goes, I don’t feel that I can really be described as a boy or a girl.”
Ana Fiorini, a senior and costume design major who also identifies as nonbinary, said, “I don’t technically identify as a gender. Sometimes, I feel like a more stereotypical male. Sometimes I feel like a more stereotypical female. Sometimes neither, sometimes both.” However, Fiorini does not have preferred pronouns, whereas Edwards uses they/them pronouns. These pronouns are used when another person is referring to them in the third person. Edwards prefers gender-neutral pronouns.
They said, “I’m not comfortable associating entirely with masculinity or femininity. I just want to be known as a person, not ‘that guy’ or ‘that girl.’”
When it comes to making accommodations for nonbinary students, the University of Wyoming itself does very little.
Chad Baldwin, the associate vice president for communications and marketing said, “The University as a whole does not have a policy specifically addressing nonbinary students.”
Baldwin added, “However, the absence of a specific policy campus wide should not be construed as there being no policy at all. Under University Regulation 1-5, faculty members would be expected to treat transgendered students with the same consideration as any other student.”
Regulation 1-5 only refers to transgendered students and not students who identify outside the gender binary. Baldwin mentions another guideline that applies to university athletics.
The guideline reads, “Teammates, coaches and all others in the school are highly encouraged to refer to transgender student-athletes by a student-athlete’s preferred name, and references to transgender student-athletes should reflect the student-athlete’s gender identity and pronoun preferences.”
Once again, this only refers to transgender students and is not listed as a requirement. It is “highly encouraged.” At this time, there is no policy engineered specifically for the treatment of nonbinary students or usage of their preferred pronouns.
When asked if teachers and professors have been respectful of Edward’s preferred pronouns, they answered, “I’ve honestly only been brave enough to ask one teacher to use my correct pronouns. She was more than happy to do so and she even told me about several other students she knew who identified similarly.”
The response in this situation was positive, but the story doesn’t end there.
“However,” Edwards continued. “As far as my other teachers go, I’ve been too afraid because I know that most people don’t particularly understand this and aren’t willing to try using they/them for me. Sadly, I figure it’s better to be misgendered out of ignorance rather than come out and potentially deal with intentional misgendering.”
Unfortunately, Edwards is not the first student to feel oppressed this way.
A video posted to Chronicle featured members of the LGBTQ community pursuing a higher education who faced similar problems. The caption to the video reads, “Transgender and non-binary students share what keeps them from feeling safe and thriving on campus.”
The video features interview clips with real LGBTQ and nonbinary students, who share stories similar to Edwards.’
“Preferred pronouns are a big thing,” one student in the video said.
A transgendered student said, “When my professors don’t notice that I have a preferred name listed in the university registry, it can be very anxiety-inducing to wonder, ‘Oh, what’s going to happen on that first day of class when I’m outed? What are other students going to say? What is the teacher going to say?’”
Another student in the video added, “You’re essentially coming out every semester.”
Sometimes, having a preferred name on the university registry is a student’s only option. “Getting your legal name changed is hard or expensive to do,” one student said, “and it’s really out of my budget.”
Using a preferred name is only half the battle, as the roster does not list preferred pronouns. When enrolling at UW, Edwards said there was a disappointing lack of options when it came to gender.
“I noticed that there was nothing that I could pick- there wasn’t an option for any gender nonconformity and it was really frustrating,” Edwards said.
The debate over gender identity is still relevant, but there has been progress in the past. Shane Windmeyer, the executive director of Campus Pride, was positive about the video posted to Chronicle.
“Society is changing how we view gender identity and expression,” Windmeyer said. “And these young people are speaking out.”
Dolores Cardona provided a map showing the locations of all the unisex and family friendly bathrooms on UW’s campus.
“We’ve actually now compiled a list of where they’re at,” Cardona said. “We have shared this information with the folks at facilities planning.”
UW is taking steps to make this information accessible.
“We’re working on getting this information on our RRC website,” Cardona said.
Once it’s posted, it will be available to all transgender, transitioning and nonbinary students.
