Trans People in Higher Education

Genny Beemyn

• Publisher: SUNY Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781438472744, 9781438472737
• eBook ISBN: 9781438472751
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Higher Education

Honorable Mention, 2019 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award in the LGBTQ category While more trans students, faculty, and staff have come out on US college campuses today than ever before, many still report enduring harassment and discrimination. Others avoid disclosing their gender identity because they do not feel safe or comfortable at their schools. This groundbreaking book is the first to address their experiences in a single volume. Genny Beemyn brings together personal narratives and original research to give readers both individual and large-scale perspectives, which provide unprecedented insight into the experiences of trans people in higher education. These contributions reveal that despite an improving environment, trans people continue to face widespread interpersonal and institutional opposition on campuses across the country. Some of the first published research focusing on nonbinary trans undergraduates and trans graduate students is included here, in addition to the most comprehensive research to date of trans students at women's colleges and of trans academics. Trans People in Higher Education also examines the sexual health of trans students, the treatment of trans people by individuals with institutional authority, and the strategies and lessons learned from one college that successfully became more trans inclusive.

RESEARCH ON TRANS PEOPLE
AND TRANS INCLUSION
ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES

EIGHT

How I See Me, How You See Me

Trans College Students Navigating Gender Outside the Binary

Kasey Ashton

TRANS COLLEGE STUDENTS are often an invisible minority on college campuses. This invisibility occurs for myriad reasons that are both systemic and personal. Colleges are built around and consistently reinforce a male/female binary through housing assignments, gender-specific bathrooms and locker rooms, institutional forms, and various other ways. To the extent that campuses provide trans-related programs and services, these activities are often based on the assumption that all trans students want to transition medically and socially from one gender extreme to another (male to female or female to male), ignoring students with nonbinary genders (Bilodeau 2007). As a result, trans students who are not seeking to transition or who want to transition socially but not medically (such as by changing their name and pronouns) receive little support.

At the same time, research focusing on trans college students is growing, but it largely concentrates on student perceptions of programmatic interventions, campus climate, and support services (Beemyn 2003; McKinney 2005; Miner 2009). The current study adds to the higher education literature by exploring how both binary and nonbinary trans college students self-author gender. The focus of the research was less on how college students experience campus climate and policies/procedures and more on the development of their gender identities. Because this study was primarily concerned with personal journeys, self-authorship theory was used to provide a unique perspective into how trans students construct, experience, and make meaning of gender. A deeper look into how gender is self-authored helps illuminate how gender privilege negatively affects students who do not fit easily within a male/female binary. Gender is not constructed nor understood within a vacuum; it is therefore essential to consider how personal cognition intersects with and is influenced by an internal sense of self and by relationships with others when exploring how trans college students understand gender.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Marcia Baxter Magolda’s theory of self-authorship (2009a, 2009b, 2010) served as a theoretical lens for this study. Self-authorship is the internal capacity to define one’s own values, opinions, and beliefs and is a holistic perspective on development that includes epistemological, intrapersonal, and interpersonal dimensions (Baxter Magolda 2009a). Development in one dimension encourages growth in the other dimensions. Self-authorship is a cyclical journey that is informed and influenced not only by these intersecting dimensions but also by the personal and social contexts of an individual’s daily life (Baxter Magolda 2009b; Boes, Baxter Magolda, and Buckley 2010). Self-authorship theory thus provides insights into how individuals deconstruct external gender messages to construct and redefine their gender identities.

Research has demonstrated that catalytic events, such as encountering racism, negative stereotypes, or harassment, can lead marginalized students to question what Baxter Magolda (2009b, 629) calls “external formulas”—social norms about “appropriate” gender roles and behaviors—prior to and after entering college (Abes, Jones, and McEwan 2007; Torres and Baxter Magolda 2004; Torres and Hernandez 2007). It follows, then, that trans college students may experience “ruptures [to] key structures,” bringing gender issues to the fore and catalyzing change (Hines 2007, 55). While minoritized students may exhibit self-authored behavior upon entering college, they may fall back into external formulas for success to navigate college systems, which underscores the cyclical nature of self-authorship (Pizzolato 2004).

METHODOLOGY

Narrative inquiry was used to explore the meaning-making process of gender identity. Stories provide a glimpse into how trans-identified students construct and understand their internal sense of self (Abes 2004). The process of telling one’s story is empowering, especially for those whose voices have been largely silenced. Valentine (2008) noted that silence leaves room for stereotypes, discrimination, and fear, whereas storytelling has the power to imbue confidence and a sense of identity. Trans people have experienced the silencing and marginalization of their stories within both gender and LGBT research.

To delve sufficiently into participants’ gender stories, two in-depth, in-person interviews were conducted with each participant. Between interviews, the participants were asked to reflect on their gender and bring to the second interview a visual or textual representation of how they perceive and understand their gender. The item could be anything they felt was an accurate reflection of their gender, including photographs, drawings, quotes, poems, or selections of prose. The second interview focused on the significance of the object to the participant. The personal items provided a unique look into how participants experience their gender, and their discussions of the items were analyzed as part of their overall narratives. Each participant’s story was considered individually and as part of a larger story. The analysis focused on the content of a person’s narrative (what the story communicates) and less on the structure (how the story was put together) (Riessman 2008).

PARTICIPANT INTRODUCTIONS

Seven individuals were selected for the study: five current college students and two alums who had graduated within a year of the beginning of data collection. The participants self-identified as white/Caucasian (n = 5) or African American/Black (n = 2). The majority of the participants were nontraditional students. Because they had taken time off from school, transferred from a two- to a four-year institution, or changed majors, five of the interviewees were in their mid- to late twenties. Being older, these participants were often able to think critically about their lives and how their experiences have affected their gender. Four identified their gender as nonbinary (genderqueer or gender-fluid) and three as binary (male, trans man, or trans woman). Table 8.1 provides a brief overview of each participant’s gender identity, pronouns, age, and race. The names are pseudonyms selected by the participants.

TABLE 8.1 Participants

Name	Gender Identity	Pronouns	Age	Race
Barry	Male	He/Him/His	Mid twenties (recent graduate)	White
Cee	Genderfluid	He/Him/His	Traditional age	African American
Jane	Queer	She/Her/Hers	Mid twenties	White
Leigh	Genderqueer	He/Him/His	Late twenties	African American
Mallory	Trans Woman	She/Her/Hers	Mid twenties	White
Mark	Trans Man	He/Him/His	Traditional age (recent graduate)	White
Page	Genderqueer	He/Him/His	Mid twenties	White

The study was conducted at a large, public research university considered to be one of the more trans-welcoming schools in the Southeast United States. The university includes “gender identity and expression” in its nondiscrimination policy, covers hormones for students who are transitioning under its student health insurance plan, and recently implemented a chosen name policy. The campus also has a professionally staffed LGBT center, which regularly sponsors trans-specific programming, and out trans students participate in these and other activities.

EMERGENT THEMES

Three overarching themes emerged from the data analysis: power in self-definition (how do I identify?), navigating gender roles (who am I?), and negotiating connections (what relationships do I want with others?). The themes weave together and influence each other as the participants self-author their gender.

POWER IN SELF-DEFINITION

Individuals create a sense of self and identity and feel empowered by claiming specific labels for themselves. For many cis people, gender is not a matter of self-labeling; it simply “is.” It is inherent and does not need to be examined or questioned. In contrast, the participants, whose gender identities challenge the binary and who question assumptions linked to biological sex, viewed gender as an identity to be explored, claimed, and expressed. What quickly became clear in their gender stories is that for them, gender could rarely be expressed in a one-word response, and their journeys were winding, sometimes circuitous, and intensely personal. Mallory, a white trans woman in her mid-twenties, described her gender journey as “being homesick for something you don’t know. That kind of just longing and feeling that something’s missing.”

The way the participants understood and explained their genders was filtered through a lens of societal norms and expectations (Dragowski, Scharrón-del Río, and Sandigorsky 2011). Jane, a white, queer woman in her mid-twenties, described notions of appropriate masculine and feminine behaviors as being so pervasive that “you can’t really get away from it.” Leigh, an African American nontraditional student who identifies as genderqueer, acknowledged that for those who “cross those boundaries … there’s all hell to pay.” Several participants cited the penalties imposed on those who do not adhere to traditional gender roles or who step outside of a gender binary as the reason relatively few people do so. Mark, a recent graduate who is white and identifies as a trans man, believed that most people are uncomfortable taking a deep look into themselves because they find it scary to face aspects of themselves that are in conflict with dominant cultural norms and with how they want to see themselves.

Each of the participants grew up in a world where their gender was defined and limited by their families, peers, and larger societal expectations. As they have gotten older and obtained the relative freedom offered by college, they have taken the power of labeling and self-definition into their own hands to create and strengthen their gender identities.

Queering the Label

For most participants, expressing and naming their gender identity was a multifaceted process. Barry, a white graduate in his mid-twenties, was the only participant who described his gender with a single word; he was male, and stated that he was “male from the beginning.” For the rest, expressing their gender identity was more complicated. Leigh described himself as genderqueer, but struggled to articulate how that particular label described his gender:

I consider myself to be genderqueer … I was born male, but I feel like that’s too strict or too confining. … Oftentimes I find myself wanting to … explore kind of female roles and typical female behavior, typical female things. My words are failing.

Cee, an African American student in his mid-twenties, also indicated that describing his gender to others was challenging because his identity did not fit neatly into a single category. He explained, “Like for the most part I present as male, but I don’t think I necessarily identify as completely male … I mostly use gender-fluid … it’s not concrete and not necessarily male, not necessarily female.”

The participants were also frustrated by the pressure to claim a label. Jane used several terms to describe her gender, but preferred not to have to pick a specific label. Although she sees herself as a woman, she feels a stronger connection to other identities: “I would say like trans, queer, lesbian-type person. … I feel like queer fits pretty well. It’s kind of like a catch-all label for people who don’t like labels, which is kind of like what I am.”

As Mark transitioned, he struggled with pressure from friends to claim a label. Active within the LGBT center and the LGBT student organization on the campus, Mark found a strong and supportive group of friends who embraced his gender journey. However, members of this community were also the cause of stress and frustration at times because of their need to know Mark’s gender label. He noted that he did not always have a label to share with them:

I didn’t identify as anything and that’s really hard because it makes people uncomfortable and they don’t know what to do with it. They really honest to God have no idea what to do with it. How do I identify? I don’t identify. I don’t. Because I was uncomfortable with the boxes. I didn’t know where I wanted to be. I didn’t know who I was and I was tired of people asking me to put a label on myself that I didn’t understand.

Interestingly, the participants’ refusal to self-label seemed to cause consternation for both LGBT and cis heterosexual individuals on campus. Mark’s queer friends wanted to know how he identified, perhaps to see if he was similarly a member of the community. In contrast, he and other participants indicated that they were rarely asked about their gender identity or the pronouns they use by their cis heterosexual classmates. Instead, classmates would stare and whisper to each other if they could not readily identify someone’s gender. Page, a white student in his mid-twenties who identifies as genderqueer, related how his appearance was very androgynous prior to taking hormones, and as a result people often did not know what gender label to use. But no one was willing to approach him. There was “just a lot of talking to each other about it and a lot of staring,” which he found “awkward.” When he began taking testosterone, the whispers stopped, as his male gender expression led others to assume he identified as male. But now that he is off hormones, he finds that the odd looks are back, “but still no one has specifically asked me [about my identity].”

Confusion about someone’s gender, like other forms of confusion, is something that people typically find uncomfortable and seek to clear up as soon as possible. The collage that Cee created for this study, which included a big question mark with the word confusion below it, demonstrates that confusion does not need to be clarified or eliminated. He described the image as “Confusion, because my gender identity is a very confusing thing. Not that I mind. It’s not a problem. It’s just confusing to me, but it’s a good kind of confusion. I just enjoy things not being straightforward and explainable.”

Cee no longer lets a predefined gender label determine how he expresses his identity. When he fi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• The Voices of Trans Students, Staff, and Faculty
• Research on Trans People and Trans Inclusion on College Campuses
• A Guide to Trans Terminology
• Contributors
• Index
• Back Cover