Trans at Elon
Transgender Highlights
Name Changes on Student Records
Students can change their name by contacting the Registrar or the Gender & LGBTQIA Center. Students can change their name on University records including e-mail accounts, transcripts, and their degree. Additionally, any alumni who have experienced a gender transition anytime after their Elon graduation can have their degree re-printed with their correct name. You can view more information at the registrar’s website.
Restrooms
We have 120+ Universal Restrooms (formerly known as Gender-Neutral Restrooms) campus-wide. Our Universal Restrooms are often single-stall and lockable, and many also have baby changing tables to assist parents with small children who may be visiting for Homecoming, Commencement, and Move-In. See a list of all Universal Restroom locations on our Universal Restrooms resource page.
Gender Inclusive Housing
The Gender and Sexuality LLC offers community and safety to LGBTQIA+ students and allies. Adjustment to a dorm environment can be challenging for all new students but it is typically more stress-inducing for transgender and gender non-conforming folks. Learn more about living in the LLC by visiting the Gender and Sexuality LLC page.
Visit this page to Apply to Live in a Residential Learning Community.
Athletics
Our Department of Campus Recreation now allows students to play on the team that aligns with their gender identity for Intramurals and Club Sports. Regarding NCAA and University Athletics, a transgender student-athlete must abide by NCAA national guidelines, which dictate students to undergo one year of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) before being officially placed on the NCAA team that aligns with their gender identity.
Dragstravaganza
Dragstravaganza is an event created by Elon students to show allies how gender is exaggerated and how people can break out of the gender binary. This show is hosted by queer Elon alumni and includes student performers and professional drag queens. This event is hosted every fall semester. Visit our Events page to learn more.
Kiki Ball at Elon
Every spring semester, the GLC & CREDE host a Kiki Ball! The Kiki Ball at Elon is a large celebration event of LGBTQIA ballroom culture and history that originates from Queer & Trans People of Color in the northeast. Balls have traditionally been both safe and affirming spaces for folks who are Trans. Visit our Events page to learn more.
TDOR
Transgender Day of Remembrance is an international initiative held on November 20th each year, memorializing transgender, genderqueer, and nonbinary people who have been killed due to anti-transgender hatred, prejudice, and violence.
Past events have also included a reading of the names, a 6-person educational panel on trans lives (with Elon alumni & Greensboro’s Triad Gender Association), and a lighting up of the administrative buildings in blue light, pink light, and white light – the colors of the transgender flag. Visit our Events page to learn more.
Trans Day of Visibility (March 31st)
Transgender day of remembrance is recognized annually on March 31st and celebrates the accomplishments of transgender and gender non-conforming people while raising awareness of the work that still needs to be done to achieve trans justice.
In March 2022, the GLC celebrated Trans Day of Visibility with trans-themed cupcakes and self-care bags in the Gender and Sexuality LLC. Fostering trans joy is more important than ever and the GLC hopes to make a yearly tradition with a TDOV event for the Elon community.
Transgender Speakers
Below is a list of speakers that have visited Elon University to interact with students, faculty, and staff to help educate around trans identities and trans inclusion.
Tiq Milan & Kim Katrin Milan
Writer, speaker and activist Tiq Milan spoke about his experience as a Black trans man navigating masculinity with intentionality. In a society where gender roles often lead to toxic masculinity, Milan discussed being a “man of his own design” where he re-constructs masculinity from a feminist perspective. One of the leading voices for transgender equality, Tiq has won several awards from organizations including The Hispanic Black Gay Coalition, Black Transman Advocacy Inc., The National Trans Latina Coalition and The National Pride Index. He’s also been recognized by BET, Ebony Magazine, and MTV.
Kim Katrin Milan is the co-founder of The People Project & Activist for Justice and Inclusion. She joined Tiq for the campuswide “Radical Black Love” event where they discussed intersectionality across race, gender, and sexuality through their lenses of queer empowerment, racial justice, and building relationships that are limitless, queering the typical notions of gender norms or rigidity in how we love one another.
Kat Blaque
Kat Blaque is a transgender animator, social media influencer, and activist who blogs about her personal life, issues facing the LGBTQIA community, and the importance of intersectionality on her Youtube channel to an audience of 135K followers. She visited Elon University in 2017 as a Keynote speaker for the Intersect Conference. During her lecture, she shared her experience transitioning in college, the struggles she faced as a black trans-woman, and how pursuing animation helped her to come to terms with her own gender and sexuality. Blaque also shared with the attendees the importance of staying true to yourself and having confidence in all facets of life.
Kat Blaque resides in California and has written articles for Everyday Feminism and the Huffington Post’s Black Voices column. She continues to post weekly videos to her Youtube channel and Facebook account to educate others about social challenges regarding gender, race, and sexuality. She playfully refers to herself as “intersectionality salad” as she embodies various identities and experiences.
Willy Wilkinson
Willy Wilkinson, MPH is an award-winning, mixed heritage, Asian American, transgender writer, public health consultant, cultural competency trainer, and spoken word performer. He is author of the Lambda Literary-award winning book “Born on the Edge of Race and Gender: A Voice for Cultural Competency,” which explores the ambiguities and complexities of mixed, trans and disability experience within a cultural competency framework.
J Mase III
J Mase III is a black/trans/queer poet based in NYC. A blogger for the Huffington Post he is author of “If I Should Die Under the Knife, Tell My Kidney I was the Fiercest Poet Around” as well as “And Then I Got Fired: One Transqueer’s Reflections on Grief, Unemployment and Inapproporiate Jokes About Death.” As an educator, J Mase has worked with thousands of community members in the US, the UK and Canada on the needs of LGBTQIA youth and adults in spaces such as k-12 schools, universities, faith communities and restricted care facilities among others.
Geena Rocero
Geena Rocero is a transgender model and advocate. She is the founder of Gender Pride, a world-wide program that stands up for the rights of transgender people. Rocero visited Elon as part of the Intersect Diversity and Leadership Conference.
Eli Clare
Eli Clare is an author, speaker and activist whose books include The Marrow’s Telling and Exile and Pride. Clare offers lectures and workshops around the country regarding disability and identifying on the LGBTQIA spectrum! Clare came to Elon to talk about heterosexual privilege, disability, and queerness. “We are drawn together as LGBTQIA less on the basis of same identity, and more on the basis of what we face together.”
Dr. Cael Keegan
Dr. Cael Keegan is the Assistant Professor of Women and Gender Studies and Liberal Studies at Grand Valley State University. He sits on the editorial board of Genders, an academic journal whose writing focuses on gender and sexuality related to culture, art, politics and economy. Dr. Keegan visited Elon January 2014 and talked about trans representation in the media and advancing campus climate and inclusion for trans people.