The Chronicle of Higher Education
October 18, 2015
When transgender students fill out college applications, they often run into trouble right out of the box — or, rather, in the box that students typically must check to indicate their biological gender.
The gender identities of some people may not conform to a binary of biological male or female, much less align with what’s listed on their birth certificates. Colleges also expect potential students to enroll under the legal name that matches their government-issued ID and school records, not the name they may have chosen to represent their gender identity. As more openly transgender students apply to colleges, many of those students and institutions are wrestling with inflexible data systems and entrenched attitudes in an effort to make the admissions and enrollment processes more trans-friendly.
Researchers estimate that people who self-identify as transgender make up less than half a percent of Americans, but trans people are becoming increasingly visible in society, thanks in part to celebrities such as Caitlyn Jenner and the actress Laverne Cox.
In 2011, Elmhurst College became the first institution to ask LGBTQ-identity questions on its admissions application, according to Genny Beemyn, director of the Stonewall Center at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an expert on transgender issues. A list that Beemyn maintains for Campus Pride, a national college LGBTQ-advocacy group, now cites more than 200 such institutions, including the University of California and State University of New York systems.
But most college-application forms do not allow for gender identities beyond biological male and female. For example, the Common Application, software that is used by more than 500 institutions, asks students to declare themselves male or female, as consistent with their birth certificates.