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From the Post Athens.

LGBT-inclusive preferred name and pronoun policy approved for the 2015-2016 academic year

Shortly before the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of same-sex marriage Friday, Ohio University President Roderick McDavis approved a policy that will allow for further inclusion of LGBT individuals on campus.

The preferred name and pronoun policy, which was approved June 4, will allow all OU students to state their preferred names and select their preferred pronouns in their Student Portal, said Delfin Bautista, director of the LGBT Center. This name and pronoun will then show up on professors’ class rosters, advising lists and anywhere a student ID card is swiped.

The policy is expected to “have everything in place that is needed” by mid-July and will be fully-functioning for student use in the fall, Bautista said.

“Hopefully, what this will create is there may be faculty who may never know the legal name of a student,” Bautista said. “They may have Rachel in class, and Rachel has always been Rachel, but they may never know that Rachel’s legal name is Richard.”

Thus, students no longer need to worry about their legal names unintentionally “outing” them because their legal name does not match their identity.

The policy not only applies to transitioning students, but also to students who simply have a different name they prefer to go by, such as “Bob” for “Robert.” Additionally, the policy can benefit international students who choose to go by an American version of their name.

“We also talked about students who may be able to change their last name because their parents got divorced or issues of sexualized violence. There are a number of issues why a person may also want to change their last name, so the system is in place to also allow for that,” Bautista said. “We purposely framed it so that many different types of groups could benefit from the policy.”