Uni adds gender options
A QUEER rights advocate is ‘‘really happy’’ genderdiverse students now have more options to identify when giving their enrolment details to the University of Otago.
Whereas in the past students could choose female, male or X for indeterminate, students this year can identify as ‘‘gender diverse’’, and, if they want to, specify whether they are a male or female, a transgender man, a transgender woman or nonbinary transgender.
There is also the option of calling themselves Mx or Id in addition to the titles Mr, Mrs, Miss or Ms — and students can change their gender in their student details without having to provide any supporting paperwork.
OUSA former queer support coordinator Hahna Briggs said she was ‘‘really happy’’ students could now use those options to express their identity.
For about 18 months OUSA and the university had been discussing the possibility of having more options to choose from, and Ms Briggs said she had been in a number of conversations with staff and had supported someone who was pushing for the change.
Ms Briggs, who also organised Dunedin Pride last year, has since left her position but is still active within OUSA as a senior student support advocate.
In the past, the University of Otago had only male and female options on enrolment forms due to requirements set out by the Ministry of Education.
‘‘Students were able to change their gender marker after enrolment to M, F, or X (X for indeterminate) but they had to provide a statutory declaration or an updated passport to make this change. Now this process is so much easier,’’ she said.
OUSA president for 2019 James Heath said the new university process was ‘‘in line with common practice’’.
‘‘From an OUSA perspective we welcome, and celebrate, openness with regards to gender diversity with a goal to make Otago the most inclusive campus in NZ.’’
Feedback about the change from students online was very positive, describing the move as ‘‘awesome’’ and ‘‘fantastic’’.
‘‘Mx’’ — pronounced ‘‘mix’’ — to describe people who do not want to be classified as male or female is used in the United Kingdom on official documents.
OUSA Queer Support conducted a campus climate survey in 2014, and found 1.1% of participants identified as gender diverse or transgender — equating to nearly 230 students if the total roll of fulltime and parttime students was about 20,800, as it was in 2017.
The university was unable to respond to a request for comment before deadline.