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Journal of LGBT Youth

ISSN: 1936-1653 (Print) 1936-1661 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wjly20

“It's Already Hard Enough Being a Student”: Developing Affirming College Environments for Trans Youth

Anneliese A. Singh , Sarah Meng & Anthony Hansen

To cite this article: Anneliese A. Singh , Sarah Meng & Anthony Hansen (2013) “It's Already Hard Enough Being a Student”: Developing Affirming College Environments for Trans Youth, Journal of LGBT Youth, 10:3, 208-223, DOI: 10.1080/19361653.2013.800770

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2013.800770

Published online: 27 Jun 2013.

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Journal of LGBT Youth, 10:208–223, 2013 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1936-1653 print / 1936-1661 online DOI: 10.1080/19361653.2013.800770

“It’s Already Hard Enough Being a Student”: Developing Affirming College Environments

for Trans Youth

ANNELIESE A. SINGH The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA

SARAH MENG Georgia State University, Dawsonville, Georgia, USA

ANTHONY HANSEN The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA

The current article is a qualitative study of the daily lived expe- riences of resilience that trans youth have as they engage in self- advocacy within their college environments. Using a phenomeno- logical research tradition and theories of liberation psychology and feminism, researchers interviewed 18 trans youth. There were four major themes in the participant data: (a) campus-wide trans- affirming language, (b) campus training on trans student con- cerns, (c) trans-affirming campus health care access, and (d) de- veloping a community of trans allies on campus. In addition to study limitations, future practice, research, and advocacy implica- tions for developing trans-affirming educational environments for trans youth are provided.

KEYWORDS Allies, campus climate, feminism, gender identity, higher education, resilience, transgender, youth

INTRODUCTION

There has been significant evidence that trans youth face discriminatory and hostile educational environments; however, there has been a scarcity outcome data on how trans clients navigate their colleges, engage in self- advocacy, and develop resilience in response to transphobia and other forms

Received 16 April 2012; revised 30 August 2012; accepted 10 September 2012. Address correspondence to Anneliese A. Singh, The University of Georgia, 402 Aderhold

Hall, Athens, GA 30602-7124. E-mail: [email protected]

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Trans College Student Advocacy 209

of discrimination. The word trans is utilized in this study as an abbrevia- tion for people who self-identify as part of the transgender or transsexual umbrella (Sausa, 2005). At a basic level, trans people reject the gender as- signed at birth; however, trans people include a diverse group of individuals. While some trans people identify with a binary system of gender (i.e., man, woman), others subscribe to gender as fluid and multifaceted. Especially for trans youth, self-identifications of gender identity and gender expression can be evolving (Beemyn, Domingue, Pettitt, & Smith, 2005).

Trans and gender-nonconforming students in college have reported high rates of bullying due to their gender identity/expression, yet despite the dis- crimination, high rates of educational attainment were reported (Grant et al., 2011). The National Transgender Discrimination Survey of 2011 reported nearly 27% of the trans population has an undergraduate or a graduate de- gree, which is above the national average for U.S. citizens (Grant et al., 2011). The survey also found that the trans population tended to be enrolled in higher education settings at higher age categories than the general popula- tion, with rates two to three times higher. The findings indicate that, despite facing discrimination and job loss, trans people are likely to reenroll in col- lege settings in an apparent attempt to increase employment opportunities in the future. Finally, the study highlighted that the trans community was likely to earn less money than the general population level despite equal educational attainment.

Recent awareness about LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer) discrimination and bullying has prompted U.S. lawmakers to enact two separate pieces of legislation to prevent further abuse. The Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA, H.R. 1648) seeks to amend the Elementary and Sec- ondary Education Act to require federally funded schools to adopt codes of conduct specifically prohibiting bullying and harassment based on gender identity and sexual orientation. In addition, states would be required to re- port data on bullying and harassment to the Department of Education, which would use the raw data to prepare a report to U.S. Congress every two years. The Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA, H.R. 998) specifically states that discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation is prohibited in public schools. Modeled after Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the bill also prohibits discrimination against a student because of actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity of a person with whom a student associates or has associated. Both bills have been introduced to Congress but have been relegated to committee action and have yet to re- ceive major congressional discussion. Nationally, only 17 of the 50 states in the United States have enacted laws to protect residents from discrimination based on gender identity.

Scholarship on trans concerns in college settings has identified numer- ous challenges trans students face and the necessary resources colleges might provide to be culturally responsive to this group (Beemyn et al., 2005; Carter,

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2000; Ivory, 2005). However, little is known about the specific daily lived experiences of trans college students and the resilience and self-advocacy they draw from on their campuses. This resilience—the ability to negotiate adverse situations—has been recently studied with trans adults, suggesting that self-advocacy, community building, and developing a sense of hope are important components of their resilience. Yet there have been few studies on the resilience experiences of trans college students. Therefore, the purpose of the current qualitative study was to identify the resilience strategies trans college students use to successfully navigate their college environments so that educators and other helping professionals who work with trans college students can more effectively develop trans-affirming college environments.

Long-Term Impact of High School Victimization

Although research on the experiences of trans-identified individuals is ex- panding, very few empirical studies address trans college students. Perhaps because of increased attention to the impact of bullying on LGBTQ students and the importance of supportive programs such as gay–straight alliances, the number of studies on high school LGBTQ students is multiplying and many focus on victimization (Chesir-Teran & Hughes, 2009; Kosciw, Greytak, & Diaz, 2009; Toomey, Ryan, Diaz, Card, & Russell, 2010). Examples of victim- ization experiences include the following: verbal insult, physical violence or the threat of physical violence, sexual violence, threatening to disclose gen- der identity or sexual orientation to others (Chesir-Teran & Hughes, 2009). Considering the impoverished narrative of trans college students and the rel- ative availability of empirical data on the experiences of LGBTQ high school students, consulting studies on the high school experiences of trans students is currently a critical task of literature review.

While we do not yet have a vivid picture of trans students in higher education, studies show that experiences of victimization in high school have a lasting impact. For the majority of LGBTQ youth, high school is a site of harassment, discrimination, and victimization (Kosciw & Diaz, 2006). In fact, high school is frequently the first place victimization is experienced (D’Augelli, Grossman, & Starks, 2006). Trans students face harassment based on gender normatively as well as the assumption of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer identity. As a result of the compounded intersection of gender and sexuality (Kosciw, Diaz, & Greytak, 2008), trans students are more likely to report victimization than other students (McGuire, Anderson, Toomey, & Russell, 2010).

Studies illustrate both immediate and long-term impacts of victimization. Rivers (2001) found that half of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans participants who experienced bullying in schools reported long-term effects, including negative affect and self-harm or suicidal ideation. Compared to gender- conforming lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth, D’Augelli and colleagues (2006)

Trans College Student Advocacy 211

found that gender-nonconforming lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth reported significantly higher levels of past victimization, as well as higher levels of current mental health symptoms. High school victimization is also a predic- tor of psychosocial adjustment challenges in gender-nonconforming young adults (Toomey et al., 2010), which was confirmed by Russell, Ryan, Toomey, Diaz, and Sanchez (2011). It should be no surprise, then, that trans youth who experience harassment in high school are less likely to attend college than their cisgender peers (Greytak, Kosciw, & Diaz, 2009).

Harassment of Trans Students on Campus

While empirical data focused solely on the experiences of trans-identified college students are extremely limited, in a national survey Rankin (2003) found that 71% of participants believed trans students were not only likely to be harassed on campus but were also more likely to be harassed than lesbian, gay, or bisexual students. Consistent with this perception, trans students reported experiencing significantly more harassment than lesbian, gay, or bisexual college students. Students represent the majority of authors and receivers of harassment on college campuses, highlighting the importance of student-focused initiatives to interrupt transphobic harassment; however, a bleak outlook is painted by nearly half of trans survey participants, who state that issues of sexual orientation and gender identity are not fully addressed on campus (Rankin, 2003).

Rankin (2003) cautions that regional differences must be more thor- oughly examined. In a qualitative study of 24 trans youth aged 14 to 21 in Philadelphia, nearly all participants reported verbal harassment in school. Of these participants, 83% reported physical harassment and 75%, many of whom eventually dropped out, reported not feeling safe at school (Sausa, 2005). Pointing to large gaps in the literature, Effrig, Bieschke, and Locke (2011) assert that the impact of victimization on psychological wellness of trans students is not yet fully understood. In a comparison of trans col- lege students who sought mental health service and trans students who did not seek mental health services, Effrig and colleagues (2011) found that both groups experienced similar rates of victimization, psychological dis- tress, self-injury, and suicide attempts. Trans students who utilized mental health services did, however, report higher levels of suicidal ideation than trans students who did not utilize mental health services, leading researchers to wonder whether the distress of suicidal ideation prompts trans students to seek support. However, the question of the types of support and the quality of the support available to trans students remains.

Addressing the Needs of Trans College Students

In a nationwide qualitative study of 50 trans undergraduate students, McK- inney (2005) found that participants were dissatisfied with the level of

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education among faculty and staff on trans issues. Participants also reported a void of trans-related programming, limited or no availability of trans-related campus resources, and inadequate counseling services. Reflecting on the failure of colleges and universities to address the needs of trans students, McKinney (2005) states, “It is our responsibility to offer trans students mean- ingful, humane, and knowledgeable support” (p. 74).

Even though lacking empirical data, researchers and practitioners have recognized the need to for trans-affirming campuses and have published practical guidelines for meeting the needs of trans students (Beemyn, 2005; Beemyn et al., 2005; Bleiberg, 2004; Ivory, 2005). Thus far, guidelines for creating a safe and inclusive campus have focused on areas such as health services, residence life, documentation, and bathrooms. Carter (2000) notes an underlying theme for each of the aforementioned sites of potential sup- port: many are built on gender policies that reinforce heteronormativity and a binary system of gender. Ending or limiting campus policies based on gender divisions and offering support services to trans students are, there- fore, suggested as primary methods of addressing the needs of trans college students. Carter (2000) also suggests educating faculty, staff, administration, and students.

To Carter’s three suggestions for creating a trans-affirming campus com- munity, Beemyn (2003) adds a fourth avenue for addressing the needs of trans students: cultivate trans-affirming administrative policies that are inclu- sive of gender-nonconforming students. Although suggestions on how to create and maintain a trans-affirming campus are readily available to ed- ucators who seek such information, little information is available on the strategies that trans students themselves employ in order to navigate higher education.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the ex- periences of self-advocacy that trans students engaged in on their college campuses so that educators who work with trans students can develop more trans-affirming environments for their students. The specific research ques- tion guiding our qualitative inquiry was this: What are the resilience strategies trans youth use to make their educational settings more trans affirming?

METHOD

This study used phenomenological research to understand the essence and meaning of a phenomenon (Creswell, 2007; Hays & Singh, 2011; Moustakas, 1994). For this study, the phenomenon examined was trans youth’s self- advocacy and resilience in educational environments. Because trans youth have historically faced significant discrimination in many settings—within their families, schools, and communities—and experience a lack of trans- affirming policies and laws at the local, state, and national levels, the current

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study is grounded in a theoretical framework that included feminist em- powerment and liberation psychology tenets (Martin-Baro, 1994; Worrel & Remer, 2003). For instance, the following tenets guided each stage of the research process and activities with trans youth: valuing their experiences, acknowledging their sociocultural identities and sociopolitical realities, con- cientización (consciousness of the impact of social structures on individual well-being), and “the personal is political” (the idea that individual experi- ences are connected to systemic forces) (Martin-Baro, 1994; Worrel & Remer, 2003).

Researcher Assumptions

The research tradition and theoretical framework of this study required an ex- amination of researcher assumptions and biases about the topic and activities at each step of the research process (Lather, 1991). Using the phenomeno- logical process of bracketing (Hays & Singh, 2011; Moustakas, 1994), the first two authors maintained individual reflexive journals throughout the research process and endeavored to reflexively identify the impact of their assump- tions and biases on data collection and interpretation. The first author has worked extensively with trans youth in professional and personal settings and holds a core belief that trans students are resilient social change agents and likely develop resilience prior to and during their engagement with dis- criminatory systems. The second author has advocated for trans students at a small liberal arts college and believes educational systems can be liberatory. The third author has begun advocacy work on behalf of the trans commu- nity at a major liberal arts university in the Southeast and believes that trans youth find models for resilience in both negative and positive interpersonal interactions.

Procedure

The first two authors completed an institutional review board submission to gain permission to engage in the study. This current study is a part of a larger study examining resilience of trans youth, and researchers conducted a secondary analysis of the original data with the college student subset. Once they received approval for the study, the authors used electronic mailing lists and social networking sites (e.g., Twitter, Facebook) to publicize the study. Participants received a $20 gift card for participating in the study. Potential participants contacted the first author, who scheduled a phone call to discuss the informed consent and criteria for participation in the study. Purposeful sampling was used with the following criteria: (a) identify as trans, (b) identify as a student, and (c) between the ages of 15 and 25 years

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old. If participants met the criteria, the first two authors scheduled them for a semistructured interview.

Participants

Of the 17 study participants, 13 were White, 3 were multiracial, and 1 was Asian American/Pacific Islander. Of the total, 7 were college graduates, 7 were current college students, 1 had earned an associate’s degree, 1 had medically withdrawn from college, and 1 had dropped out of college. Partic- ipants reported their gender identity as trans guy or trans man (10), male (3), FTM (2), and genderqueer (2). Sexual orientation was reported as queer (10), gay (2), unreported (2), straight (1), asexual (1), and pansexual (1). A total of 9 participants resided in the Southeastern United States, 3 in the Midwest, 1 in the Northeast, and 1 in the Northwest; 3 participants refrained from reporting their geographic location. Regarding disclosure, 16 of the participants had disclosed their gender identity to both parents, while one participant chose to disclose only to zes mother. The average age of participants was 22.

Data Collection and Analysis

There were four steps to data collection and analysis. During each step, re- cursivity was built into the research activities, where new research informed the previous data collected. In the first step, the first and second authors worked with three additional interviewers to conduct semistructured inter- views with participants. The interviews ranged from 45 to 90 minutes in length and were transcribed verbatim and sent to the participant for an accu- racy check. The second step included peer debriefing meetings between the first two authors during which they developed a codebook that was revised based on how the new data informed the previous data. In this step, the re- searchers maintained reflexive journals and documented their biases about the topic. The third step included consensus coding using the codebook for an additional analysis of the data collected. During this step, the researchers focused on the resilience and self-advocacy strategies related to participants’ educational systems. In the final step, the researchers engaged in an internal audit of the data to ensure credibility of findings.

Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness is the process of ensuring credibility of the findings in a qualitative study (Creswell, 2007; Hays & Singh, 2011). The researchers used three strategies of trustworthiness in this study. First, the first two authors maintained individual reflexive journals that allowed them to track their

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researcher biases and the effect of these on data collection and interpre- tation. Second, the researchers engaged in member checking, ensuring that participants viewed their transcripts and had an opportunity to endorse them or make changes based on their experiences of the phenomenon. Third, an internal audit of the data was conducted to ensure the credibility of the find- ings and thick descriptions of participant sharing was used in the current article.

FINDINGS

The researchers identified four major themes within the data: (a) campus- wide trans-affirming language, (b) campus training on trans student concerns, (c) trans-affirming campus health care access, and (d) developing a commu- nity of trans allies on campus. The themes are presented in the following sections and are illustrated as appropriate with participant data.

Trans-Affirming Language Campus-Wide

Participants shared that educational settings could become trans affirming by simply beginning with respect for the language (e.g., words, pronouns) used to describe gender identity and gender expression. Will shared: “The basics of names and pronouns would be nice. It is kind of hard to think about this topic, because there are so many basics that aren’t being met that it’s hard to think of getting something above and beyond basics.”

The trans youth in the study reported going out of their way to commu- nicate with teachers, administrators, and other school personnel to ensure they were addressed with trans-affirming language. Although this resulted in much time and effort for participants, the possible consequences of not engaging in such self-advocacy was specifically what they wanted to avoid. For instance, Chuck shared: “If they would call me the wrong name at the beginning of class it’s very embarrassing, so I wouldn’t answer. That’s a really prominent experience in my mind, and it definitely needs to be addressed.”

Campus Training on Trans Student Concerns

The trans youth in this study reported that colleges and universities needed to have training on trans youth concerns for teachers, staff, students, and other personnel with whom trans students would likely interact on campus. This aspect was especially important because the participants in this study believed teachers played a large role in shaping overall campus climate.

216 A. A. Singh et al.

Participants also noted the large power differential that teachers had in their role and the impact teachers had on trans youth. Ezra shared:

Teachers need education about trans stuff. They need to get better about pronouncing people right. They need to use the right names. Bullying is a big thing that’s being talked about right now, but we’re not talking about the fact that teachers do the bullying. They are the ones with institutional power to not call the person the right name or pronoun or make them use the wrong bathroom.

The trans youth in this study also noted the obstacles to ensuring there was comprehensive training on trans concerns in educational settings. Their determination to advocate for individuals in their educational settings to affirm them was simultaneously rooted in an awareness that these trainings might not happen without funding and other institutional forms of support. For instance, Emil shared: “Discrimination happens everywhere, because people are trying to cover their ass and worry about budgets because of what heteronormative people want, and that’s bullshit. I want some people who are progressive to put some funding where there isn’t funding.”

A few participants mentioned the importance of training other students about trans concerns in order to develop more trans-affirming educational settings. For example, Luke shared: “It is certainly useful to have program- ming on transness and on gender identity. On a more daily level, it would be helpful to present kids with a wider variety of gender identities and expressions.”

Trans-Affirming Campus Policies and Spaces

Because educational settings are guided by policies and also are consistently developing new policies, participants noted several areas within educational settings where they needed more support from their schools, colleges, and universities. Residence halls, gender-neutral bathrooms, athletics, and legal assistance were all areas about which participants had concerns and wanted to their educational settings to address and improve. For example, Jordan shared:

In academic buildings, it was really helpful when there were gender- neutral bathrooms because it got complicated figuring out who I might run into in the bathroom. Also, with roommate policies, it would’ve been nice to be able to pick a roommate of whatever gender.

Antonio wanted legal help for himself and other trans students who went to his school because he wanted to change his name. However, he also thought that his college might have supported trans youth who were not

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able to have their names legally changed for whatever reason. He shared: “I wish it had been easier to change my name within the school system before I changed it legally. That really sucked.”

Participants also shared the surprise and discomfort at times that resulted from their colleges not having adequate trans-affirming policies. For instance, for Jordan, athletics was an area where campus policies were not fully trans inclusive, resulting in confusion and a lack of support for trans students. He shared the following:

I was an athlete for the first semester, and then I stopped after I came out as trans because it wasn’t really clear how I would continue on the team. I don’t really fit on the women’s team, but then I’d be at a big disadvantage on the men’s team’ so that was really complicated and not an easy issue to deal with. The fact that there’s no policy on what to do about a trans athlete makes it really hard to be a trans athlete. It was an extra barrier.

Finally, within this theme, participants discussed how the extent to which a campus was centralized or decentralized affected trans students’ experiences. For instance, Jordan had to advocate for himself in residence halls on campus and extended this struggle to the need for additional campus policies and resources that trans students need: “We need better support for trans people in dorms. We also need to have a way of using preferred names on all documents except legal and financial.”

Trans-Affirming Campus Health Care Access

A large component of the resilience for the participants in this study was their ability to understand and access trans-affirming health care services (e.g., mental health services, hormone replacement therapy, surgery) on campus. For some participants, the idea that they “needed” counseling as trans youth to affirm their gender identity and gender expression was frustrating to them. Ezra shared, “I’ve heard a lot of schools that force students with GID [gender identity disorder] into counseling. There’s a difference between ‘I need to go to a counselor’ and ‘I’m trans.”’

Other participants asserted that trans youth needed specifically trans- affirming mental health professionals—not just someone who worked with the student body at large—to be able to fully understand the challenges trans students experience. Jordan shared how being trans complicated his life as a student: “Being trans is an extra stressor that trans youth are deal- ing with, and sometimes you can struggle in school for reasons that have nothing to do with your intelligence because, you know, you’re dealing with other stressors.” For many participants, access to good mental health services

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helped them literally survive intense trans prejudice, lack of family or peer support, and other obstacles. Fitz shared:

Good mental health services are important. I would say without the person who is my therapist at school—I don’t know if I would’ve made it through. Having a mental health professional who is sensitive to trans health is important, especially because it’s already hard enough being a student.

Participants had similar views of other health care services, such as the degree of access they had to trans-affirming primary care and other medical services to meet the individual needs of the student. Issues of health care access were complicated by the extent to which their health care plans covered gender-affirming medical services. This access also intersected with other areas of their lives, such as employment discrimination and being able to present in the gender expression that felt was congruent with their gender identity. Thaddeus shared:

I’d like to have health insurance that covers things that are useful to me. You know, hormones are not always covered. Surgery is not covered at all now, even though I think that it’s an important thing. It’s life or death for some people. I would like to not be fired from a job for, you know, being trans . . . or stuff like that.

Developing a Community of Trans Allies on Campus

Participants shared that a large component of their resilience and self- advocacy was the support they received from a trans-affirming community on campus. The individuals in this community not only were trans affirming but also would help participants brainstorm strategies of self-advocacy on campus. For instance, Fitz shared, “I don’t know what I would do if I had to process transphobia by myself all the time. Processing alone is inevitable to some extent, but all the time would be too much.”

For many participants, despite a campus environment that was not trans affirming in policies, they reported that overall they were able to have good experiences in college. These positive experiences were largely related to the community of allies they interacted with, from friends to family to other campus personnel. Jack shared:

[College] has been surprisingly positive and particularly since I’d gone in expecting the worst. Actually, it’s been pretty good. There’s always maybe like a couple of people who are kind of “jerkish” about it, but when compared to the overwhelming support that I’ve received, it’s kind

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of invisible. Occasionally, you get a few people who [pause]—really, it’s less meanness and more it’s that they don’t get it.

The trans students in this study understood that having friends within their own peer group was a large part of their resilience. SC shared: “It’s hard, but you just have to deal with it if it’s what you really want. There are rewards. You might be surprised to find out who your friends are, who is actually going to support you through this.”

DISCUSSION

The trans college students in this study were creative social change agents within their campuses. The themes that researchers identified across partici- pant interviews provide important outcome data to guide colleges in devel- oping trans-affirming campus environments. The participants were clear that trans-affirming language is needed not only in classrooms but also through- out the campus, in residence halls, and at all levels of campus administration. Trans students also outlined the importance of providing comprehensive training on trans student concerns at all levels of college campuses, both within and across campus departments. This type of training would be a helpful starting point for college campuses seeking to respond to trans stu- dent issues. For instance, trans-affirming training offers a site to educate faculty, staff, and administrators on campus policies and spaces that are trans responsive and culturally relevant for this group. Finally, participants were adamant that a college campus seeking to support the resilience of trans students would advocate for trans-affirming health care. The major components of this health care would not only address issues of access to medical services but also would ensure trans-competent mental health care access as well. Many of these themes are congruent with previous con- ceptual work on trans college campus issues (Beemyn et al., 2005; Carter, 2000; Ivory, 2005), and the current study provides an insight into the daily lived experiences of trans college students as they identify the important resources they would like colleges to provide for them during their college years.

Practice, Research, and Advocacy Implications

There are several implications of this study for future work with trans college students. First, in terms of practice, college personnel must seek to immedi- ately develop their own knowledge, awareness, and skills in working with this group. Second, this study intentionally used a feminist and liberation psychology theoretical framework to be able to acknowledge, value, and

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highlight the counterstories of trans college students. These students dis- cussed many of the aspects of their resilience at length and quite easily. The literature on trans individuals in general tends to be deficit oriented and rarely uses a strength-based framework (Singh, Hays, & Watson, 2011; Singh & McKleroy, 2011).

Therefore, it is important to understand how to nurture and expand the resilience of trans college students while simultaneously working to end transprejudice. For instance, research studies of the specific ways that college personnel advocate and support trans student resilience, in addition to understanding how college personnel engage in working to dismantle transprejudice, would be important future studies. Advocacy is a critical factor of any work with trans college students. The participants in this study described the important role that trans allies played in their lives. Colleges can have specific discussions about creating an office or program dedicated to trans advocacy to ensure assessments of college climate and developments of trans-responsive college policies are occurring. At the same time, this advocacy should not be limited to one person or to one office to ensure trans advocacy is engaged in across campus units.

Practical Implementation Guide for Colleges Developing Trans- Affirming Campuses

Based on the daily lived experiences of participants in this study, college personnel seeking to develop trans-affirming environments may implement the following practice steps:

• Conduct a self-study of the campus resources for trans students. • Hold focus groups and individual interviews with trans students. • Review all college paperwork across campus units to ensure gender iden-

tity may be captured in a trans-affirming manner (e.g., list multiple gender identities, include a space for students to self-identify their gender).

• Develop trainings on trans students that are campus-wide and required. • Integrate trans student content into all diversity and multicultural trainings

on campus. • Ensure campus mental health service workers are trained to work with

trans students to meet their individual goals, rather than act solely as gatekeepers for necessary health care.

• Advocate for mental health services and trans-affirming medical treatments to be covered by student insurance.

• Locate gender-neutral bathrooms and inform trans students on the location of those bathrooms. Where gender-neutral bathrooms are not available, locate and publicize single-occupancy bathrooms.

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• Develop a protocol for trans students to request an e-mail address and student identification card that reflect the student’s self-identified name.

• Allocate funding to student organizations with trans leaders and members.

Limitations of Study

The current study is limited by the assumptions and biases of the researchers engaged with the data. For instance, the researchers attempted to bracket their biases throughout the research process. However, there certainly may have been areas participants experienced in their lives that they were not resilient to, and it is possible that response bias of participants may have occurred due to the focus of the study. Also, the sample was predominantly White and identified as trans men. Therefore, the transferability of the find- ings may be limited to trans college students who share these identities. Finally, because this was a secondary analysis of previously collected data, the researchers were not able to ask follow-up questions of participants.

CONCLUSION

This study of resilience and self-advocacy of trans college students provides rich information upon which college personnel may draw from to design culturally responsive higher education environments for trans youth. Trans students, such as those in this study, have the capacity to be immensely resilient despite their experiences of significant oppression. Recognizing, supporting, and nurturing their resilience is the responsibility of college campuses and is long overdue for trans students. As Brad reminded us, “It needs to be okay for people to be themselves. No matter what. As long as it’s not harmful to them or harmful to others, why not let someone be happy? Why not let someone chase their happiness down? If one transgender person can be happier, then that needs to happen.”

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CONTRIBUTORS

Anneliese A. Singh, Ph.D., LPC, is an Associate Professor in the depart- ment of Counseling and Human Development Services at The University of Georgia.

Sarah Meng, B.A., is a master’s student in the professional counseling pro- gram at Georgia State University.

Anthony Hansen is a doctoral student in the counseling psychology pro- gram at The University of Georgia.