LGBT News Transgender Student Faces ‘Outing’ Over Schools Policies

Sinopaa · Sep 7, 2013

Transgender students face ‘outing’ when schools do not have inclusive policies

Getting accustomed to a new school as a transfer student may be a difficult experience. For LGBT studies junior Rob Ortiz, the necessary first week of school changes and challenges were added to by another set of stressors: dealing with a university staff that was not prepared to answer the pleas of someone who identifies as a transgender male.

As soon as he read his acceptance letter to San Diego State University, Ortiz said he called the Office of the Registrar and asked about the policy of changing a name in unofficial documents. Ortiz has not changed his name or gender legally because of financial constraints, he said. Ortiz prefers his birth name not be revealed in this article.

Ortiz said he hoped to change his name and gender documentation because of the “nerve-racking (experience for a) transgender student to attend class, especially the first day of class, when it means they will be publicly ‘outed’ to the entire classroom as soon as roll is called.”

The Office of the Registrar said there was no policy and denied his request. After the name bid, Ortiz asked how he could change his gender in school documents.

“The registrar had no response; she simply told me she ‘had never been asked’ and simply ‘did not know,” Ortiz said in an email that was shared with various LGBT organizations and Student Affairs administrators on campus.

At transfer student orientation, Ortiz had another request. He said he wished to change his name on his RedID, the SDSU student identification card. During the face-to-face interaction, Ortiz told the admissions employee he was transgender.

“They did the face check, chest glace, then back-to-face thing,” he wrote in the email. “And after about five seconds of awkward silence, the girl that had been helping me [before] said ‘Yeah, that’s OK’”

But, once he arrived to have his picture taken for his RedID, the person in charge of taking pictures told him they couldn’t print an ID without his legal name and denied the card with the name “Rob” on it.

“Unlike other universities, SDSU has no policies in place for transgender students,” Ortiz said.

But, Director of SDSU’s Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities Lee Mintz—who “specifically studies trans students on college campuses”—said the policy might exists, she just doesn’t know where.

“There are so many different departments on campus that have specific policies that are run in certain ways that have to abide by so many different things that I can’t say ‘Yeah, we had no policy about that’ because that might not necessarily be true,” Mintz said.
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*sighs*

Jinkies · Sep 7, 2013

So this is basically one of those moments where people are going "Don't ask me, I just work here" which actually is fine, because they're not in the position to be looking for that kind of information. They're just the photographer, not the person in charge of all of it. When things are ambiguous, then it's better to be safe than sorry.

It's very uplifting though, that the person who's in charge of all of it is doing their job. Props to them.

DhammaGamer · Sep 7, 2013

The fact of the matter is that the school is required to use legal information for the purpose of registrars services. A legal name change is cheap, simple, and one of the easiest parts of transition. If I was the 19 year old registrar's work study employee working for the university in question then maybe I could be a little more sympathetic and understanding, but even then I could not in any way change the legal policies associated with the school. After going full-time I emailed all of my professors personally to inform them of my correct name and the fact that a name change would be finalized within the semester. There were no issues whatsoever. This is not news, it is sensationalism.

Gold Griffin · Sep 9, 2013

The school isn't the problem here, it's the fact that the government apparently can't change someone's legal name without charging them an amount beyond their means.

LGBT News Transgender Student Faces ‘Outing’ Over Schools Policies

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