So my university's Health and Behavior Center sent out a faculty survey on attitudes and awareness about mental health services on campus for students today (TW:
our state has a high suicide rate, and there was a recent student suicide
). Anyhow, at the end of the survey, there was a demographic information section, including gender. Gender had three options: Male, Female, and Transgender. Argh. On the plus side, when I called the number at the end of the survey to let them know that it was problematic and made people who were both trans* and binary-gendered have to choose between their identities* (as well as excluding non-binary-gendered people) the woman who answered sounded apologetic and as though she was hastily scribbling things down as I stammered, so I think they might change that in future surveys. I suggested maybe "male, female, and non-binary" might be good categories instead.
*I'm pretty sure it was someone here on Fugitvus who pointed that out to me rather than on one of the other sites I read, and thank you so much for giving me the language to explain it to the people who make the standardized forms in at least one department on campus. I am really anxious about talking to people on the phone, and I don't think I could have clearly articulated the issue (even if I recognized it in the first place through all my cis privliege) to her without that. I tried searching for the post so I could credit the person here, but I wasn't able to find it, possibly due to misremembering the key search terms.