Members of the transgender community at Simon Fraser University (SFU) are campaigning to have their preferred names, rather than their legal names, printed on university documents.
The movement was started by Nathan Lyndsay, a gender, sexuality, and women’s studies student at SFU.
Students can choose a “preferred name,” which appears on some class lists and for their email, Lyndsay said.
Lucas Crawford, the Ruth Wynn Woodward lecturer in the same department, said the term “preferred name” suggests that it’s somehow not your real name.”
Lyndsay said it’s about safety as well as preference.
“School is a place where all kids have the right to feel safe,” he said. “When we’re asking people to out themselves, whether that be on class lists, or on their degree, or on their student cards, you’re asking people to share really intimate details about themselves.”
Crawford added how outing yourself as trans isn’t always a safe thing to do, or even a comfortable thing.
“SFU will do its best to respond to concerns while balancing our role of protecting the authenticity of student identity and credentials we issue,” wrote Tim Rahilly, SFU associate vice-president, in a media statement.
Members of the campaign met with administration Oct. 2 and will meet again in two weeks.
The meeting was “the right thing to do,” Lyndsay said. “It’s important to include the people who are actually living with this in the conversation.”
Crawford said people in the transgender community often have to advocate for themselves. He said this showed “good faith” from the university, and that the campaign hopes to find more allies.
At Carleton, students can change their name with the registrar, which changes their name for class lists and email, but not student IDs.
Melina Pelley, administration co-ordinator at Carleton’s Gender and Sexuality Resource Centre, said Carleton is making good steps towards inclusivity.
“There’s hate everywhere, and the university does their best to try and help,” she said.
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