Beyond Acceptance: Serving the Needs of Transgender Students at Women’s Colleges

Beyond Acceptance: Serving the Needs of Transgender Students at Women’s Colleges." Author(s): Annie Freitas. Source: Humboldt Journal of Social Relations Vol. 39, Special Issue 39: Diversity & Social Justice in Higher. Published by: Department of Sociology, Humboldt State University.

University campuses provide students with both academic and residential services, containing both the private and public sphere. Within the residential and private sphere, it is important that colleges’ counseling, medical, and residential resources are responsive to trans students’ various experiences in order to provide adequate and informed support. Within classrooms, discussions about transgender issues should raise awareness and foster support for more compassionate and informed perspectives of transgender experiences that negate possible previous misconceptions leading to an increased awareness of trans culture and issues both historically and in the current political atmosphere. Currently, these debates are occurring to an extent, but remain mostly contained within the subjects of psychology and gender studies (Beemyn 2005) and are often more theoretical than tangible in terms of actual policies that could improve experiences (Catalano 2015).

Translation:

Kampus perguruan tinggi menyediakan mahasiswa dengan layanan baik akademik dan residensial, yang mencakup ranah privat dan publik. Dalam lingkup residensial dan privat, penting bagi konseling perguruan tinggi, medis, dan sumber daya residensial responsif terhadap berbagai pengalaman yang dialami oleh siswa trans agar dapat memberikan dukungan yang memadai dan terinformasi. Di dalam kelas, diskusi tentang topik transgender seharusnya dapat meningkatkan kesadaran dan menumbuhkan dukungan untuk perspektif pengalaman transgender yang lebih penuh kasih dan terinformasi yang memungkinkan untuk meniadakan kemungkinan kesalahpahaman yang terdahulu yang mengarah pada peningkatan kesadaran budaya trans dan masalah baik secara historis maupun dalam suasana politik saat ini. Saat ini, perdebatan ini terjadi sampai batas tertentu, tetapi sebagian besar tetap terkandung dalam subjek studi psikologi dan gender (Beemyn 2005) dan seringkali lebih teoretis daripada nyata dalam hal kebijakan aktual yang dapat meningkatkan pengalaman transgender (Catalano, 2015).