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“Is this you?”
A food service worker recently asked me this when they saw that the photo on my Syracuse University ID card didn’t match the short pixie cut I have now. It startled me a little, to be put into the spotlight, publicly questioned on the authenticity of my identity.
Now, every time I go to the dining halls, the worries that piled up in that moment — as the line stalled and people watched, wondering why they were stopping me, why there was a problem, whether I’d done something wrong — come flooding back as a worker takes a moment too long staring at my ID card.
Having your identity questioned, especially in public, is uncomfortable. Deadnaming someone, or calling someone by the name assigned at birth that they no longer go by, is a form of identity invalidation.
Deadnames are often a representation of times before finding and expressing one’s true self. To refer to someone by their deadname reminds them of all the pain and discomfort from before they changed their name and invalidates the identity they’re expressing with their preferred name. This experience is uncomfortable at best and, at worst, a violent traumatic trigger.
Unfortunately, being deadnamed is not an uncommon situation for many SU students.
In 2016, SU established the Preferred Name Policy to prevent these harmful triggers and eliminate the use of deadnames in classrooms and in university communications with students. In accordance with this policy, the university created a form on MySlice that allows students to put their preferred names in the university system. The Pronoun, Gender and Preferred Name Advisory Council was created along with the policy, but isn’t........