Has the athletic department expressly adopted and publicly endorsed a policy that protects transgender varsity student-athletes which also offers an accessible reporting mechanism or the contact information for a point person?
Methodology update as of July 2023: If AEI evidence (or the document or page containing the evidence) has a visible time-stamp, date range of application, or departmental review date, such time-stamps must be dated within the last 2 calendar years to qualify for scoring purposes. Evidence that is explicitly timestamped more than 2 calendar years before an institution’s annual audit cannot be reasonably assumed to remain unchanged in its application to current students unless explicitly stated by the athletic department. We use calendar years to make these distinctions; for example, a 2020-2021 student-athlete handbook is acceptable evidence for an audit conducted in 2023, but would not be acceptable for an audit conducted in 2024.
While there is a burgeoning body of research on trans students’ experiences in U.S. colleges (Beemyn, 2003; Effrig et al., 2011; Beemyn et al., 2005), little research on the experiences of trans varsity, collegiate student-athletes exists (Lucas-Carr & Krane, 2011). Young trans people consistently and collectively perceive campus climates differently than their LGBTQ+ peers (Dugan et al., 2012; McKinney, 2005; Rankin, 2005). In 2014, researchers found LGBQ students whose gender identity matched their sex at birth felt more protected against discrimination than trans or gender-nonconforming individuals (Woodford et al., 2014). A 2018 study reported that transgender youth were more likely bullied and victimized because of their gender, were more likely to be truant, and held negative opinions of the school climate (Day et al., 2018). Furthermore, in a 2012 study, LGBTQ+ students expressed that faculty and staff were not adequately educated and therefore not prepared to support transgender students (Dugan et al.). Positing the same may be true within athletics departments, it is imperative to examine how policies impact access to sport participation for trans athletes.