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Visualization activity

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Draw or imagine your idea of gender (the general concept, not your own identity).

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Trans and Gender Diverse Inclusion for Libraries

Stephen G. Krueger, MSLS

Pronouns: ey/em/eir

Stephen.G.Krueger@protonmail.com

stephengkrueger.com

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Orientation

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Who am I?

Perspective and limitations

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My pronouns

Subject: ey

Object: em

Possessive adjective: eir

Possessive pronoun: eirs

Reflexive: emself

Stephen likes to knit. Ey goes to many yarn shops, where ey buys emself much yarn. In the fall, you can find em watching hours upon hours of figure skating. Eir favorite skater is Shoma Uno; there is no wrong favorite, but this one is eirs.

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Outline

  • Introductions
  • Session guidelines and goals
  • Trans and gender diversity 101
  • Questions/discussion
  • Trans and gender diverse inclusion in the library
  • Next steps
  • Final questions/discussion

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Guidelines

  • Ask questions!
    • Ignorance is not a failing (as long as you address it)
  • Learn from each other
  • Use what you learn today, but do not share identifying information without explicit permission
  • Keep learning!

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Session Goals

  • Learn basic information about trans and gender diverse people
  • Acquire tools and resources for continued self-education
  • Identify practical approaches to trans and gender diverse inclusion
  • Establish environment for continued discussion

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What’s a gender?

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Visualization activity: optional sharing

Draw or imagine your idea of gender (the general concept, not your own identity).

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Share in the chat if you would like to.

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Gender identity

  • In the U.S., most (not all) people are assigned male or female at birth
    • Biological sex is not a binary
    • Terminology: AMAB/AFAB
  • Gender is how you identify
    • Cisgender (cis) people: gender aligns with assigned sex
    • Trans and gender diverse people: gender differs from assigned sex
  • Examples
    • Trans man: assigned female at birth, identifies as a man
    • Nonbinary person: regardless of assigned sex, identifies as neither man nor woman

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Gender ≠ orientation

Gender: who you are

  • Nonbinary
  • Man
  • Woman
  • Queer
  • etc.

Sexual or romantic orientation: who you are attracted to (or not)

  • Straight
  • Gay
  • Queer
  • Asexual
  • Bisexual
  • Aromantic
  • etc.

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A non-exhaustive selection of genders in no particular order

  • nonbinary, genderqueer, woman, agender, demigender, gender fluid, neutrois, bigender, maverique, man
  • māhū (Native Hawaiian), fa'afafine (Samoan), muxe (Zapotec), wíŋkte (Lakota), two spirit (pan-Indian), etc.

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Terminology

  • trans and gender diverse
  • cisgender/cis
  • nonbinary
  • outdated terminology
  • self-description

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Resource:

The Trans Language Primer

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Things individual trans and gender diverse people might do

  • Name change
    • Social
    • Legal
  • Gender marker change
  • Pronoun change
  • Medical transition
    • Hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
    • Top surgery
    • Bottom surgery
  • Presentation change (clothing, hair, makeup, etc.)
  • Come out
    • To everyone
    • To anyone
  • Any of the above multiple times
  • None of the above

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Harm and barriers for trans and gender diverse people

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Anti-trans legislation: the hits

  • Blocking healthcare for trans youth everyone
  • Preventing access to gendered public spaces
  • Weakening nondiscrimination laws
  • Excluding trans youth from athletics
  • Preventing trans people from accessing accurate ID
  • Censoring content and personal expression
  • Other school or curriculum restrictions
  • And more!

Mapping Attacks on LGBTQ Rights in U.S. State Legislatures

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Current legislation

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Tweet by Apayauq Reitan, the first out trans woman to run the Iditarod

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Barriers (in no particular order)

  • Money
  • Legislation
  • Time
  • Knowledge
  • Support
  • Danger

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Barriers to things individual trans and gender diverse people might do

  • Name change
    • Social: knowledge, danger, support
    • Legal: knowledge, legislation, money, time, danger, support
  • Gender marker change: legislation, money, time, knowledge, danger
  • Pronoun change: knowledge, danger, support
  • Medical transition: knowledge, money, time, danger, support
  • Presentation change (clothing, hair, makeup, etc.): money, time, danger, support
  • Come out: knowledge, danger, support
  • None of the above: By choice or not

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Names and pronouns

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Names

  • Name of use: what one generally goes by
  • Legal name: on driver’s license or other documentation
  • Deadname: one term for the previous name of a trans or gender diverse person

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Personal pronouns

  • Third person (talking about someone)
  • (Almost) everyone has them! But pronouns ≠ gender.
  • You cannot tell someone’s gender or pronouns from their appearance or name.
  • Common pronouns: they, she, he
  • Neopronouns (not actually that new): ey, ve, xie, yo, ze, and many others
  • Other pronouns: Name, initial, it, and more

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Respect self-identification

  • Use the name, pronouns, and other language a person asks you to use or shares around you.
    • May differ depending on context.
    • Using just a name because you are uncomfortable with pronouns is noticeable.
  • Change what you call someone if they ask.
  • Learn what you don’t know.
  • Practice if needed.

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Pronoun sharing

  • If only trans and gender diverse people share their pronouns, they implicitly out themselves by doing so.
  • Share your own pronouns if you are comfortable (regardless of your own gender).
  • Never require pronoun sharing.

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Resource: MyPronouns.org

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Pronoun sharing

  • Suggested language: sharing
    • “My pronouns are he/him or they/them.”
    • “I use she/her pronouns.”
    • [pass/skip: you are never obligated to share your pronouns]
  • Suggested language: asking
    • Share yours first! (but only if you are comfortable doing so)
    • If in a group, make it optional
    • One-on-one
      • “What pronouns would you like me to use for you?”
  • If you don’t know, use they/them or the person’s name.

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Nonverbal Pronoun Sharing

  • Nametag
  • Email signature
  • Business card
  • Button/sticker
  • Desk or office sign

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  • CV or resume header
  • Presentation title slide
  • Social media bio
  • Event registration
  • Any others?

Reminder 1: All of these must be optional and open-ended.

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Reminder 2: A person’s pronouns can change.

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General recommended practices

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Personal information

  • Collect only what you absolutely need (this rarely includes legal name and almost never includes gender)
  • Be clear about what you are asking
  • Explain why you are asking
  • Be transparent about who will see the answers
  • Open-ended and optional is usually best

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Collecting Personal Information

  • Names
    • Specify type (legal name or name of use)
    • Always default to name of use
  • Pronouns and gender
    • Optional and open ended, not multiple choice
    • Explain how the information will be used and who will see it
  • Salutation
    • Optional, consider not collecting at all
    • Mx.

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Outness

  • Not a binary, often situational
    • Out in some spaces but not others
    • Changing genders and orientations
  • Outing: revealing someone’s identity without their consent
    • May be well-intentioned. Still bad!
    • Potentially really bad.

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Resource:

U.S. Transgender Survey Report

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Do not do these things

  • Do not make assumptions about anyone’s gender
  • Do not impose your ideas about gender roles on others
  • Do not out someone*

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*unless you have explicitly talked to them and know that they want you to

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Things that are none of your business

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  • Gender identity or sexual orientation
  • Body or medical transition
  • Legal name
  • Legal gender
  • Sex assigned at birth

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Things that are your business

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  • How to respectfully refer to someone

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Making Mistakes

  • Acknowledge
    • To yourself and/or to others
  • Apologize if appropriate
    • Briefly and sincerely
  • Correct yourself
    • How depends on the situation
  • Move on
    • Do not center your own feelings and do not obsess over the error
  • Improve

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BREAK

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Trans and gender diverse inclusion in the library

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For trans and gender diverse employees

  • You do not owe your employer or coworkers…
    • Your identity
    • Your labor (except for your actual job)
    • Your knowledge (except for your actual job)

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Coming/being out at work

  • Supply only what information you need and want to
    • “Please call me [name] and use [pronouns] for me.”
  • Ask for support from people you can trust with more power and/or less emotional investment
    • Information for you (name change policies, health insurance, etc.)
    • Making improvements, e.g. suggesting trainings or changes
    • Reminding others how to refer to you
  • “I’m not comfortable answering that.”
  • “That isn’t part of my role, but you can ask/read…”
    • Published materials, HR, LGBTQ+ center, subject librarians, etc.

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Supporting coworkers/employees

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  • Individually
    • Use pronouns and gendered terms correctly
    • Acknowledge and apologize for your mistakes
    • Do better
  • Correcting and educating others
    • You will feel uncomfortable.
    • Prepare and practice
  • As a workplace
    • Create a culture that welcomes growth
    • Set specific expectations

Resource: Supporting Trans Library Employees

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JUST BE CHILL

(go listen to a dozen episodes of Gender Reveal and maybe you’ll calm down)

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How to make your library gender inclusive

Apply gender inclusive practices to all aspects of library services and spaces, before an issue is raised by someone impacted (by which point others have already been harmed but not said anything).

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Okay, but…how?

  1. Create personas
    • Different roles (e.g. student workers, community patrons, hourly staff, etc.)
    • Different identities (gender, intersecting identities)
    • Different experiences (name or gender marker changes, out or not as trans, comes out while employed, etc.)
    • Multiple personas for each role, of varied identities
  2. Walk personas through how they might engage with the library
  3. Identify issues, develop solutions
  4. Repeat 2 and 3 until the issues are resolved
  5. Do all this again on a recurring basis

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Example issues: Restrooms

  • There are no all gender restrooms in the library.
  • There are no all gender restrooms in the public spaces.
  • There are no all gender restrooms in the staff spaces.
  • There are no accessible all gender restrooms in the public spaces.
  • There are no accessible all gender restrooms in the staff spaces.
  • The all gender restrooms are few and far apart.
  • Staff assume gender when giving directions to restrooms.
  • Only women’s restrooms have wastebaskets in the stalls.
  • Only women’s restrooms supply menstrual products.
  • People must ask for a key to use an all gender restroom.
  • The all gender restrooms do not have clear signage or mapping.
  • Some public services staff don’t know there are all gender restrooms.

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Example issues: Institutional repository

  • The IR requires an institutional login, and automatically sets up the account with the user’s legal name.
  • Users cannot change their own name in the IR system.
  • Authors cannot change the published name on posted works.
  • The university has a policy against changing names on theses.
  • There are no instructions on how to withdraw items in case of emergency.
  • There are instructions for submitting a name change or requesting a withdrawal, but the form does not work or the contact email is not checked by anyone.

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What happens if…?

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Research support

  • Know your discipline/specialty
  • Know the resources you have access to
  • Explain why if you need to use outdated search terms
  • Acknowledge gaps and limitations

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Restrooms

  • As many all-gender restrooms as possible
  • Adequate and inclusive signage
  • Wastebaskets
  • Clearly posted policy
  • Educate staff
    • Restroom options
    • How to give directions

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Public services

  • Don’t assume gender of patrons
    • Give directions to all restrooms
    • Use gender neutral language when referring to patrons or trying to get their attention
  • Educate staff
    • Where to find name of use
    • How to handle ID issues
    • How to navigate complaints

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Hiring

Bad goal:

Convince trans and gender diverse people to work for you at all costs

Good goal:

Become a place where trans and gender diverse people want to work

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Hiring

  • Before talking to candidates
    • Trans and gender diverse inclusion training for search committee
    • Job description: no gendered language
    • Application and materials: clear about name and gender information, ask only what is needed at any given step

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  • Interviews
    • Remind everyone candidate’s name of use and pronouns, if known
    • Use them!
    • If comfortable, share pronouns yourselves
    • Avoid gendered language
    • Provide directions to all restroom options
    • Don’t mislead candidates

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  • After
    • Collect and use legal names only as necessary
    • Same practices for references

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Hiring

…but all this happens naturally if your workplace does the work to become and remain gender inclusive.

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Gender inclusion is part of...

  • Cataloging and metadata
  • Research/reference support
  • Instruction
  • Systems
  • Circulation
  • Interlibrary loan/borrowing
  • Outreach
  • Student success
  • Collection development
  • Building security
  • Building maintenance
  • Hiring
  • Law librarianship
  • Doing research
  • Scholarly communications
  • Open access/open education
  • Management
  • Human resources
  • Administration
  • Student workers
  • Subject librarianship
  • Medical librarianship
  • Social media
  • Special collections
  • Archives
  • Event planning

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...literally everything.

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Conclusion

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  • What is one thing you can do now to make your work more inclusive for trans and gender diverse people?

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  • What is one long-term thing you can do to make your work more inclusive for trans and gender diverse people?

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Closing discussion

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Further resources

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The slide deck for Trans and Gender Diverse Inclusion for Libraries © 2024 by Stephen G. Krueger is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.