Wearing our Pride on our Sleeve

By all accounts, Reed is one of the queerest colleges in America. Our student population is not only majority gender minority, with a plurality of women in addition to a respectable nonbinary populous, but we also have a likely majority of people who sexually identify as LGBTQ+. You would not, however, know that information by looking at our demographics page.

Despite the importance placed by the college in its communications on our racial, ethnic, and indeed class diversity, our burgeoning and beautiful queer populace goes largely uncounted. I find it downright disparaging that we do not count nonbinary or genderfluid individuals as the gender that they are. We count the categories of ‘men’ and ‘women’ but nothing in between. In a country increasingly hostile to queer education and the rights of trans youth, I believe this has to change. Though we don't need to document everyone’s sexuality, as these categories are nebulous, historically situated, and not as primary, our gender identities must be represented in our demographic surveying.

One of the primary questions I get from prospies in my day-to-day life and my work in the admissions office is “Can I be out here?” The answer is, in short order, yes. And that there are many ways of being that ‘out’ looks like here, of course. I have witnessed the dramatic and blessed expansion of our gender-neutral restrooms in my time here, as well as attended classes from nonbinary faculty. As many Americans now live in gender apartheid states, with children's books including queer (or interracial for that matter) characters or relationships being banned in those principalities. Therefore lots of young people are looking for safe places to not only explore the life of the mind but to finally express themselves. I am not calling for a change in the marketing, there’s no need to announce to the world “We are the queerest college” but there is absolutely a demand that our gender queer populace in particular finally be recognized.

At a simple level, we are allowed to register our gender within the college, starting with the admissions process, as nonbinary. That data could suffice for our official demographics. Some might point out that the federal government, which needs us to publish demographic data, doesn’t even recognize the “More than three” genders that President Biden mentioned in an early campaign event. That’s fine, we should still publish our real numbers on our materials and particularly our demographic table. It’s as simple as adequately representing the population. You wouldn’t miscount people’s race, so why is it ok to misrepresent our gender diversity?

As a college with a lesbian president, in beautiful and scenic Portland, Oregon, where we have a lovely lesbian governor, it seems really apparent that queer issues are of importance here. The population of this state continues to grow apace, so clearly cis-hetero people do not feel unrepresented or unwanted in places with notable queer populations. Reed has long sought to be at the forefront of opportunity for groups of people. I’ll point out our extremely progressive form of financial aid, the numerous fly-in opportunities for prospies of colour to visit, and our adequate diversity club roster. It seems that since the queer population of this college has become the majority it has become a silent one. I will take this opportunity to point out that though poll responses at the college have gone downhill dramatically since COVID-19 began, we can adequately poll our demographic data so individuals can self-report if need be. I will also reiterate my “carthago delenda est” which is that this college absolutely needs to offer a ‘Dead Name Registration’ system whereby we can select what names are put on what paperwork. Obviously, a split system already exists to delineate betwixt preferred names and legal names. An expansion of that wouldn’t be difficult for an adequate IT department, ours is quite competent but underfunded, as the continued woeful neglect of our IT Security which has numerous pass-throughs well documented by now shows. 

I write all of this to say. We came here for the safety and beauty of a place that challenges us intellectually and offers an incredible opportunity for self-expression. The present state of identity misrepresentation on the part of our demographic reporting completely undermines the safety and value of our community. If we are indeed a place that respects self-discovery and most importantly values the rights of the individual, then we will adequately represent the actual gender, not some hoo-ha post-Victorian gender essentialist nonsense, of our residents. Just make it a box where we can write our identity, and then publish those results. Hopefully, we can continue to reflect our diversity and inclusion by further reducing the gendered bathrooms on campus; the gym renovation represents a beautiful step in this direction. If we can overcome this demographic issue, then I believe we should try to communicate that effectively in our marketing, but most importantly I hope that we can find it in our hearts as an institution to protect our queer youths who happen to be from apartheid states within America that do not allow them their full merits of self-expression or who come from families that may not be accepting; for various reasons, of their identities. This protection would come in the form of a dead name system as numerous community members have been and will continue to articulate.