In her time working at the Health and Counseling Center (HCC) as a clinical psychologist, where she first started as an intern in 2008, Kirsten Ging has seen a rise in the number of students coming in identifying as transgender.

Her experience stands as another sign of the changing atmosphere on campus.

“I don’t know if it means more people are publicly or privately identifying (as transgender) or if because of the campus climate it feels safer now than it did several years ago,” Ging said.
Ging specializes in working with transgender patients, and notes both the opportunities and challenges in the changing status quo.
Although difficulties remain, work being done in some departments such as the HCC is starting to open more portals for conversation for DU’s gender nonconforming population.

While the HCC is unable to change the gender on official files, which are linked to the campus-wide Banner system which prevents such changes, they make other accommodations. Kent said HCC doctors and therapists often make notes for themselves that the person may identify differently than the gender that is recorded on their records.

Although the HCC is tied by the same restrictions as the rest of the university with student records, staff members such as Ging and Director Alan Kent have worked to make adjustments where they are able.

“We can’t unilaterally make changes to gender on (patients’) records,” said Alan Kent. “But what we do is we try to respect the pronoun and the identification that the student comes in with.”

The HCC is one place DU transgender student Mike says he has found a great deal of support and understanding.

“I’ve recently begun to use the Health Center for checkups and things,” said Mike. “The staff there is really sensitive to my particular needs in having a body that is not like most.”
According to Kent, the HCC keeps up with the needs of gender-binary students through extra webinars and presentations from staff who work with these populations.

In the transgender psychotherapy support group program, where Emily Kerr runs a male-to-female support group, there are also interns from the HCC. Kerr says they help with groups and research the specific issues faced by gender nonconforming students.

One of these primary concerns is the financial costs associated with these sessions, according to Kerr.

“If you look at the cost of therapy, if they don’t have DU health insurance, if they wanted therapy, they have to find a clinic that could provide a sliding scale fee, or to see a private practitioner,” said Kerr.

This is where the the School of Psychology’s psychotherapy groups can be a big help. But there are still challenges, such as the extremely high cost of transitioning. Between surgeries and purchasing hormones or estrogen, in addition to the costs associated with name and documentation changes, even the most basic elements are out of the cost range of the typical college student.

“You can easily spend a few hundred dollars a month on medication alone,” said Kerr.

DU’s HCC does offer options for hormone purchases, according to Kent, a rarity among schools nationwide. According to the Transgender Law Report, 26 colleges or universities cover only hormone therapy for students. A total of 37 offer both hormone and gender reassignment surgeries for students.

DU Graduate and Director of the Gender Identity Center Karen Scarpella acknowledges colleges as one of the most crucial areas for gender inclusivity policies, making their medical plan offerings even more important.

“More people are coming to terms with their identity and transitioning earlier,” said Scarpella. “College students who may not have been able to address it in small towns in high school may take the opportunity in college to address that.”

At DU, making overhaul changes to institutional fixtures such as the banner system or health care plan is still a long way off, Walker acknowledges. For now, the group is just beginning work with members of campus departments to establish plans moving forward. In the meantime, the steps taken will be smaller.

For instance, TransAllies wants to create a transition guide for students covering the support options available on campus, as well as recommended steps to help with the process.

“That’s not fixing anything per se, but that’s kind of bringing it all together and being a good resource even as we work on improvements,” said Walker.

With more attention now coming to the experiences of gender nonconforming students, Walker hopes to see the univeristy rise to the call.

“These days lots of people have been saying we’ll get to, and saying we’ll deal with it when it comes … it’s here,” said Walker. “We have promised for six years and people are calling us on that promise, in a good way. So we’ve got the opportunity to keep our word and my hope is to actually pioneer and go beyond that.”