Chris woods, the director of the NYU LGBTQ+ center spoke to our class today talking about how NYU supports students of all backgrounds and identities. I am very happy to say that NYU is a very accepting school to students of all backgrounds, however, even like this it can be hard for some people to feel welcome and to feel that they can fully express themselves at school.
One interesting thing that Chris talked about was the gender binary. He introduced it to our class by asking us what we, as engineering students, thought of when we heard the word binary. Many of my classmates said they thought of code, of ones and zeros, or more generally as binary meaning that there are only two choices. Unfortunately many people in the world believe in just the gender binary excluding too many people in the LGBTQ+ community. Not accounting for other genders can be very damaging as well as misgendering can be even when done innocently or accidentally. Sometimes a professor may even miss gender a student by accident perhaps just based on the name they write off the roster. Chris Woods told us about how Albert is now letting students input pronouns into our profiles. And taking this step NYU is further helping students of all backgrounds to express himself appropriately without having to jump through too many hoops.
In the era of COVID-19, many people may be suffering for different reasons. Although NYU may provide a safe environment for us this environment doesn’t necessarily exist everywhere even at home. By providing different sessions throughout the semester even if it’s just online this could provide a safe space for many students to express themselves and such a hard time especially if they are also suffering at home in an environment where they do not feel safe.