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VOLUME 125, ISSUE 24
Visiting poet inspires UNR audience
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A woman holds the transgender pride flag on top of a car during the Capital Pride Parade in Washington, DC on June 9, 2018. Transgender students at UNR say they are commonly deadnamed and misgendered by the university.
Transgender community feels susceptible to ‘deadnaming’ by the university By Taylor Johnson The University of Nevada, Reno’s transgender community experiences ‘deadnaming’ and reminders of who they were prior to transitioning. Healthline describes deadnaming as someone referring to a transgender person’s birth name rather than the name they chose prior to transitioning. This can be an act of invalidation for a transgender person. “I identify as non-binary,” freshman Taz Harler said. “My professors very rarely ask about my pronouns, but the housing staff is very quick to pick up on my correct pronouns. It makes me feel frustrated because it takes a very small amount of effort to ask someone about their pronouns. I think that in addition to putting preferred names on WolfCards, we would have an option for pronouns. People aren’t always what they assume — even if I’m wearing makeup, or have breasts, I can express myself as masculine and prefer masculine or gender-neutral pronouns.” Transgender refers to individuals whose gender identity does not correspond to their biological sex. Dr. Esther L. Meerwijk and Dr. Jae M. Sevelius found in 2016 around one million adults in the U.S. identified as transgender, according to an article from the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. Cisgender refers to individuals whose gender identity corresponds to their biological sex. “I identify as a trans male,” freshman Logan Kisner said in an email to
the Nevada Sagebrush. “Very early on in my transition, I experienced a lot of misgendering, and continue now to experience a significant amount of deadnaming. The system of the ‘preferred’ name is being put on attendance rosters for class and the ability to put it on one’s school ID is refreshingly easy and effective, but for what progress is made, there have been many issues. To speak only for myself, I’ve had a number of issues with the gym and with the Housing and Food Services department. Any email that comes from the latter department is guaranteed to use the legal name of a person, even in instances where it isn’t legally required, and this is something noticed by trans people and cis people alike. At the gym, because the website runs on a ‘purchase’ type of format, I got dead-named the first time I entered the gym because the computer gave the staff my wrong name. I also recently went through the interview process to become a Resident Assistant on campus, and because the website had no option whatsoever to give one’s chosen, non-legal name, I was dead-named a multitude of times, both in the one-on-one interviews and in front of the entire carousel interview group. Most recently, I and several other trans and [non-binary] students got an email from professors in Social Psychology, in which they both deadnamed the person receiving the email and further identified the individual as specifically female.” Kisner felt humiliated each time these instances occurred.
“Each of these incidents was deeply dehumanizing and humiliating to experience,” Kisner said. “Oneon-one interactions in which I’m dead-named are their own specific kinds of demoralizing, but they’re inherently ‘better’ than group situations because I’m not being possibly exposed to total strangers. It is an individual’s choice whether or not they want to reveal their transness to another person, and in situations like my RA carousel group, I was identified by the wrong name in front of dozens of people, many of whom I did not know. In order to even have a chance for this job, I had to subject myself to humiliating, alienating experiences. I know that I live surrounded by cis frat boys and sorority girls, that in every class I am surrounded by a mix of well-intentioned cis people and what could be violent transphobes. When the university picks and chooses when to honor a student’s chosen name, I know that I am being put at risk every time.” The transgender community often suffer from gender dysphoria, according to The American Psychiatric Association. The APA describe gender dysphoria as a conflict between one’s assigned gender and one’s gender identity. People with gender dysphoria suffer from discrimination and an increased rate of mental illnesses, which can interfere with school, work and daily life. In order to stop this, those with gender dysphoria may go to therapy, begin taking hormones designated for their identified gender or partake in gender reassignment surgery.
“I am non-binary and use they/them pronouns,” freshman Ozzy Hayes said in an email to the Nevada Sagebrush. “I am consistently misgendered by students/faculty and consistently deadnamed by the university and university organizations. I was assigned male at birth, and I often get emails from fraternities and other organizations using my deadname and misgendering me as a man. To some degree I am habituated to it, because of how consistently and constantly it happens. Being misgendered is so much the norm that when my RA referred to me by my correct pronouns in normal conversation without prompting, my heart jumped and I felt great for the rest of the night. It’s logical to assume that it makes me uncomfortable with others, and it does, but the greatest impact it has on me is that I become uncomfortable with myself. Constant misgendering by the people and the environment around me makes me question myself and my identity, makes me push myself back into the ‘male’ box that I spent so much of my life breaking free from, and leaves me wallowing in dysphoria and self-loathing.” Hayes feels the university should do more to support transgender and gender nonconforming pronouns “The easiest and most accessible step to improving the comfort of trans/gender non-conforming students would be to normalize introducing oneself with one’s pronouns and asking others what pronouns they use in that space,” Hayes said.”The university is already taking the first step,
but asking others what pronouns they use in that space both allows a trans/ gender non-conforming person from outing themselves in a space that they are not comfortable being out in, and ensures that instructors, faculty, and classmates know how to address someone in a way ensuring their comfort. One of my professors in my two semesters at the school so far has bothered to do the second step, asking everyone at the beginning of the course to write on a card their preferred name and pronouns so he knew how to address us properly. We are some of the most downtrodden, marginalized people in the United States and around the world. We have been around for centuries, and we will not be bullied into staying silent. We have been a loud voice for decades, but for us to gain equality and liberation, we need cisgender allies to amplify our voices that have been crying out for so long. We are not a trend and we are not a danger. We are a community struggling to survive and fighting for our lives. We need your help, not your patronization and your silence.” In 2018, 26 transgender people were killed in the U.S. due to violence. The Human Rights Campaign finds fatal violence to disproportionately affect women of color. Their intersexuality also puts them at risk for employment, housing, healthcare and more. “I think cultures respond to that transformation unevenly,” Gender Race Identity director Dr. Jen Hill said.
NYT director’s J-School list hurtful
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Several Nevada County Sheriffs call background check law ‘unenforceable’ By Taylor Avery Douglas, Elko and Eureka county Sheriffs raised concerns about the enforceability of Senate Bill 143 since its passage on Friday, Feb. 15. Eureka County Sheriff Jesse J. Watts sent a letter to Gov. Steve Sisolak just four days after the
bill was signed into law. “This law is unenforceable by the already thin staff of Nevada Law Enforcement,” said Watts. “It is the position of this Sheriff, that I refuse to participate, or stand idly by, while my citizens are turned into criminals due to the unconstitutional actions of misguided politicians.”
Douglas County Sheriff Dan Coverly echoed Watts’ sentiment about the new law. “I do not plan on putting any effort or resources into enforcing it, primarily because it’s unenforceable,” said Coverley, according to the Record Courier. Senate Bill 143 closes the
“gun show loophole”, making it illegal for someone to purchase a gun from an unlicensed dealer without first undergoing a background check. In Elko County, Elko County Commissioners and Sheriff Aitor Narvaiza
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