Juniper White, President of the Rainbow League

Many transgender and gender-variant people choose to adopt a name that better reflects their identity. Renaming themselves can be a joyous occasion, the feeling of affirmation washing over them as the dead name is shed like old, ill-fitting skin.

However, because legally changing your name can be daunting and expensive, many trans people are still officially referred to by their dead names. During roll call, students in this situation are put through a harrowing experience. When the professor calls their dead name, it’s like being slapped across the face. Then they’re faced with the difficult decision of correcting the professor in front of their peers or silently accepting a name they’d rather everyone forget.
This problem is further exacerbated by the format of SMCC email addresses. Having your dead name glued to the official means of communication means that in order to correspond with professors, faculty, or other students, you must dead-name yourself! A fellow student has personally told me that for this reason, they choose not to be involved with student government.

To fix this dire problem, we need to ensure that preferred names show up on class rosters and are reflected in SMCC email addresses.