Transgender people are being attacked across the country. From the stony walls of law and policy to the towering big cities and sprawling countryside, there is a great fear. 

As progressive as San Diego appears to be, even our own politicians and community members would prefer to use us for political fodder. San Diego Councilmember Jim Desmond attempted to pass a bill barring transgender women from competing in women’s sports under the guise of protecting women. In San Marcos, community members begged the San Marcos school district to ignore and repeal basic rights to transgender students such as their ability to use the bathroom. 

Transgender people need support now more than ever. 

Dear Professors of CSUSM, as daunting as it may seem, you can fight the ongoing attack on trans people, but you must listen closely to students’ needs and try much harder than before. Professors are part of an amazing, intricate, critically important web of support to transgender students. 

Your transgender students see the attacks on trans people everyday from the White House to our own campus As strong as we have been forced to be in the face of human rights violations and blatant unfounded cruelty, we need your support even when you think we are not present. Please remember we could look like anyone, we are exceptional chameleons. Whenever you enter a class, I swear you have a trans student. Trust me, as a trans person, there’s more of us than you might think and we need you to be kind, respectful and supportive. 

CSUSM student Jaelin Ivester says proactive care is the most important. 

“Asking students’ pronouns beforehand, asking if they have a nickname or preferred name,” Ivester said. “There needs to be mutual respect or understanding. Be open to being corrected by students.”

But what does that look like?

Proactive care looks like:

• At the beginning of the year, when you call attendance for the first time, saying: “When I call your name, let me know if there’s a different name I should use for you.”
• Writing their preferred name down on a sticky note so you are reminded when you take attendance.
• Staying a couple minutes after class to listen to a student correct you on their pronouns. 
• In class or at social gatherings, correcting students or colleagues when they misgender a student.
• When you remember us.

This is the most important part: remembering. It is critically important for you as a professor to remember and respect your transgender students. It doesn’t matter if you are a new professor, or about to retire, you are important to and you shape the culture of CSUSM. Remembering includes pointing out a colleague’s transphobic remarks. Remembering includes sticking up for us when we’re not there, especially when we don’t have a seat at the table.

All of this to say, I’m sure the importance of respecting transgender people is not new to you. We are not a new fad, although we are continuously recycled for rage-bait and viral political debate clips on social media. But if the attack on transgender people in America is flying under your radar, let me cite the statistics that say without support systems, many transgender people will die. 

That’s the truth. We die. We get killed or we kill ourselves. 

I don’t want us to die and I know for certain that a lot of professors care, I know you want us to be here too. I see a bright future for trans people where we live full, complete, happy lives. I envision a world where our teachers from kindergarten to graduate school make a real genuine effort to secure that future. 

“Transgender youth with acceptance from at least one adult had 39% lower odds of attempting suicide in the past year,” according to a 2023 study conducted by The Trevor Project.

Who knows? Maybe you could be that adult. Maybe you already are.

Dear professors at CSUSM, here is a reminder that your transgender students exist and that you affect your students by respecting them, or disrespecting them. It hurts when you do not make an effort to correct yourself and it hurts when you stay silent when you see us being disrespected. 

But you don’t have to ignore us. So please, respect, protect, and defend your transgender students for the benefit and well-being of us all.