Diversity Among LGBTQIA in the Classroom and as an Instructor
Contributed By: Phoenix Shetty
People belonging to the LGBTQIA community, especially those who do not identify as cisgender, face a lot of problems in classrooms as a student, especially in STEM fields. First of all, not many people may be comfortable sharing their pronouns or telling their preferences to the professors and the TA’s. Also, they are always at a risk of getting misgendered by the professors, TA’s and their peers. This might make them very uncomfortable.
Also, as an LGBTQIA person myself, I found it very difficult to navigate classrooms. Being a TA can be equally difficult as well. It can be hard to always correct the professor, students and your peers when you are constantly being misgendered. This can be a problem. A simple solution is to have compulsory ethics class for both undergraduate and graduate classes in STEM departments like we have in humanities and also making people aware that these issues are very important.
People belonging to the LGBTQIA community, especially those who do not identify as cisgender, face a lot of problems in classrooms as a student, especially in STEM fields. First of all, not many people may be comfortable sharing their pronouns or telling their preferences to the professors and the TA’s. Also, they are always at a risk of getting misgendered by the professors, TA’s and their peers. This might make them very uncomfortable.
Also, as an LGBTQIA person myself, I found it very difficult to navigate classrooms. Being a TA can be equally difficult as well. It can be hard to always correct the professor, students and your peers when you are constantly being misgendered. This can be a problem. A simple solution is to have compulsory ethics class for both undergraduate and graduate classes in STEM departments like we have in humanities and also making people aware that these issues are very important.
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