Colleges add gender-free pronouns
BOSTON (AP) – Welcome to Harvard. Feel free to pick a pronoun on this form: He. She. Ze. They.
During the registration process at Harvard University, students are now allowed to indicate which pronouns they use, with suggested gender-neutral options like “ze” or “they.” Harvard isn’t the first college to embrace gender-neutral pronouns, but it’s among a wave of major institutions that are widening their policies and pronouns to acknowledge transgender students, as well as “genderqueer” students, who don’t identify as male or female.
“If someone is being alienated or potentially outed by inappropriate gender references, we think that’s not appropriate,” said Michael Burke, registrar of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
American University posted a guide on its website explaining how to use pronouns like “ey,” and how to ask someone which pronouns they use. Cornell University and MIT offer similar primers on their websites.
Ohio University started letting students register their gender pronouns this year, and officials at Boston University said they’re discussing the topic.
Last week, the State University of New York, one of the nation’s largest public college systems, announced that it’s working on a data-collection tool to let students choose among seven gender identities, including “trans man,” “questioning” and “genderqueer.”
Advocates for transgender students applaud the changes, saying it can be insulting to be identified by the wrong pronoun.
“It feels really invalidating to have people make an assumption about what your gender is simply by looking at you,” said Genny Beemyn, director of the Stonewall Center for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Changes at places like Harvard, Beemyn said, represent “acceleration of a trend that we have been seeing for the past few years.”
Beyond pronouns, more colleges are updating forms that in the past let students pick between male and female only. Applications to the University of California system include more options starting this year, letting students choose from labels including trans female or genderqueer. The move is meant to welcome those students, but for the first time it also lets the school track data on how transgender students fare on campus.
“This is something that people think is long overdue,” said Pamela Brown, the system’s vice president of institutional research and academic planning.