Equity Policy Expanded to Include Transgender People

Everyday life can pose specific stressors for transgender people — whether it's checking off boxes on medical forms, finding a unisex bathroom, or simply dealing with awkward reactions from other people.

 

To address such concerns, and to spotlight Duke's commitment to providing a welcoming environment for transgender people, the university recently broadened its statement of equal opportunity to include the phrase "gender identity." The Board of Trustees approved the new wording, which applies throughout the university and health system, on Feb. 23.

 

More on Equity policy

Outreach efforts to educate the Duke community about the recent policy amendments are in the works. In the meantime, the new wording can be viewed on the Office for Institutional Equity website.

Further resources on transgender life at Duke are available on the Center for LGBT Life website.

"One of our interests was to include not just students and faculty, but also staff and patients -- everyone who is a part of the Duke community in some way," said Damon Seils, a member of the task force that recommended the change.

 

"The university strongly endorses equal opportunity, equal access, and a respectful work environment for everyone," said Benjamin Reese, vice president for institutional equity. "[The new language] emphasizes our commitment to nondiscrimination and equal opportunity. It emphasizes our commitment to equity and fairness for everyone, including persons who are transsexual and transgender."

 

The expanded wording brings Duke in line with an evolving standard at many peer institutions, Reese said. He added that a growing number of corporations have also included gender identity in their non-discrimination policies.

The amended language was recommended to senior leaders last year by Duke's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Task Force, a volunteer advisory committee comprised of students, faculty, alumni and employees. Seils, a senior research analyst in the Duke Clinical Research Institute, helped engineer the change.

 

"Transgender" is an umbrella term that can include a broad spectrum of people, Seils said. Duke's Center for LGBT Life website states that "transgender" can include anything from "gender bending" in everyday dress or behavior to persons born with ambiguous sexual organs (a cluster of medical conditions known as "intersex"), and individuals transitioning from one gender to another, whether or not they have or will have surgery.

 

"We added ‘Transgender' to the task force's name quite awhile [ago], but it was something that our task force had not really been addressing directly," Seils said. "We formed a subcommittee a couple years ago to start exploring these questions. We wanted to see what the situation at Duke was and what were the things Duke was or wasn't doing to make this a safe community for transgender people."

The subcommittee studied the issue for 10 months before making its recommendations.

 

"We did not examine specific cases at Duke where a transgender person made a formal complaint," Seils said. "We had all kinds of anecdotal evidence about the experiences of transgender people in the community."

The number of employees affected by the addition of "gender identity" to Duke's statement of equal opportunity and non-discrimination is unknown, Reese said. But he said maintaining a respectful work environment falls on the shoulders of every member of the Duke community.

 

"In that sense it impacts all of us," he said. "Every employee has the responsibility to treat every [other] employee with respect and equal opportunity. This emphasizes the fact."

 

At the same time as this policy change, trustees also approved a second, but unrelated change to the equal opportunity policy changing the wording of "sexual orientation or preference" to simply"sexual orientation." The deletion of the word "preference" reflects evolving standards in how sexual orientation is understood, according to Reese and Seils, but does not affect or alter the university's policy of protecting gays, lesbians and bisexuals from discrimination.

 

"We're happy about the change," Seils said. "‘Preference' is outdated language and implies a lifestyle choice, which we don't think is appropriate."