Transgender People in Higher Education

Transgender people—faculty, staff, or students—are present on every higher education campus regardless of institutional type or geographic location. Transgender people’s experiences are quite heterogeneous across higher education. It is presumed that trans people in higher education are increasingly visible (e.g., speakers, student groups). However, trans people are by no means a new population. In fact, in 1965, Hopkins Hospital was the first academic institution in the United States to perform surgery for transsexual patients. While transsexuals at the time were less likely to be enrolled as students or working as faculty or staff due to severe social stigma, trans people were seen by clinicians at academic institutions.

Given this history of seeming invisibility within higher education, the increase in visibility during the 2010s led to increased ...