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The policy is available at https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/2700693/GRLN
Online education is available through the UC Learning Center at https://go.ucsd.edu/3I7kq3z and takes approximately 35 minutes to complete.
Yes. The Gender Recognition Act (California Senate Bill 179) went into effect January 1, 2019. The text of the bill is available here: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB179.
The charge of the Implementation Task Force is to "ensure UC San Diego’s compliance with the UC Policy Gender Recognition and Lived Name." The full text of the policy is accessible at https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/2700693/GRLN. Two online, 24/7 on demand courses through the UC Learning Center entitled “Gender Recognition: A Focus on Transgender, Nonbinary, and Intersex Awareness” available at https://go.ucsd.edu/2QzoQ9L and “The UC Presidential Policy on Gender Recognition and Lived Name” available at https://go.ucsd.edu/3I7kq3z. Each course is about 30 minutes, and please note “Gender Recognition: A Focus on Transgender, Nonbinary, and Intersex Awareness” course is a prerequisite to the more advanced “The UC Presidential Policy on Gender Recognition and Lived Name” course.
The work of the Implementation Task Force includes:
The leadership of the Task Force includes:
Until now, individuals whose gender identity is neither woman nor man were forced to choose from one of the two options. Within the University community, offering a nonbinary gender option acknowledges that the binary options are not sufficient to recognize gender diversity.
On October 15, 2017, the state of California passed the Gender Recognition Act (SB179). The bill contributed to university discussions already taking place about revising procedures and practices to be more gender inclusive, including the 2014 recommendations from the UC Task Force & Implementation Team on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Climate & Inclusion (the LGBT Task Force).
The designation of a lived name may be of interest to a myriad of University community members, including but not limited to individuals who are transgender, whose gender identity differs from that indicated on official documents, who are survivors of abuse and/or trafficking, whose lived or preferred name is a variation or a shortened version of their legal name (e.g., international students, faculty and staff who have adopted different names) or those who have married and have had a legal name change but wish to retain the name under which they have published academic works.
Generally, documents that the University provides to the federal government or in conjunction with a person's Social Security Number require the use of a legal name. This may include, but is not limited to the following:
Generally, documents that the University provides to the federal government or in conjunction with a person's Social Security Number require the use of a legal name. This may include, but is not limited to the following:
Yes, this policy permits the use of lived student names on eligible academic documents which include transcripts, diplomas and dissertation title pages. As provided in Senate Regulations 730, the Academic Senate approves diplomas.
Persons experiencing noncompliance or harassment concerning the usage of their gender identity or lived name should contact the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination, http://ophd.ucsd.edu.
Education is available online through the UC Learning Center titled “Gender Recognition: A Focus on Transgender, Nonbinary, and Intersex Awareness” and is available at https://go.ucsd.edu/2QzoQ9L. The staff at UC San Diego’s LGBT Resource center can also provide support and resources, http://lgbt.ucsd.edu.
The UC San Diego Council of Data Stewards reviews all requests for access to legal names for our students, employees, patients and sponsored guests. More information about the UC San Diego Council of Data Stewards ia available at https://blink.ucsd.edu/technology/bi/governance/council.html
Below you will find questions and answers regarding the implementation of the California Gender Recognition Act on campus.
Our campus is working to improve processes, practices, and policies in order to serve students, faculty, staff, and patients who are transgender, intersex, and nonbinary, and to be more inclusive. Many parts of employment processes, housing, sports facilities, payroll systems, and recreational areas are designated by gender in a binary way (men and women), and people across campus are reviewing and working to update those systems. For example, we are striving to do the following:
Preferred names, lived names, and names in use are names other than legal names that many people use for a variety of reasons, including:
Lived names are specifically a name that a person chooses, that they are consciously choosing, as the way that a person wants to be referred to at UC San Diego in the course of all University business, unless there is a legal or regulatory requirement to use legal name. Legal names may cause harm when used for those who are survivors of abuse and/or trafficking, for transgender and nonbinary people, and for others. Legal names will soon be very restricted at UC San Diego, and inaccessible to most.
There are other ways of identifying other than legal names that people may choose which do not have equivalency to lived names (i.e. they are used, but using a legal name instead causing no harm). The university has no process for using nick namea, or any other type of name beyond legal and lived name. People can control their own Zoom identifiers, their own aliases over e-mail, and many other ways the university recognizes them that may not be their legal name.
Lived names are respectful. Legal names may not be respectful, because a person did not choose them, and may not have the ability to change a legal name.
People may have a preferred name (e.g. Bob, instead of Robert), or a nickname (e.g. Mo instead of Monique), or a pen name (e.g. Dr. Seuss instead of Ted Geisel), or a cultural shorthand name (e.g. Paco instead of Francisco), or an artist name (Rihanna instead of Robyn Fenty). In general, the difference is the reality that a person’s lived name is the name they are choosing to go by. When used it is always respectful and reflective of the person’s indicated desires at the institution in relation to what they want to be called during the course of University business. Using a lived name causes no harm.
Preferred names, nicknames, pen names, cultural shorthand names, and other types of names do not have the potential to cause hard when used. Legal names do (especially for transgender and nonbinary people), and that is why people used lived names – because legal names can cause harm. An individual preferred name and lived name may be the same, or may not.
For example , a person may not want to have their lived name as Bob, but you still might use it in your signature line and during the course of university business informally. But if someone uses the legal name of Robert, no harm is caused. This person could also choose Bob as a lived name, at which point they would start to see Robert disappear from all correspondence except when legally required.
Reach out to your supervisor. They may need to first assess places where your area uses gender in a binary way (i.e. male and female, or men and women). Then, they would need to determine what steps might need to be implemented in order to ensure inclusion of nonbinary people and an “x” category into these systems. This might entail updating campus data systems, reformatting reports, including nonbinary people in surveys and assessments, and/or addressing physical spaces and facilities. This may also require training for frontline staff to ensure appropriate implementation of inclusive policies and customer service practices.
About the term transgender: Transgender is an umbrella term used to describe people whose gender identity or gender expression do not match the gender they were assigned at birth. For example, some people who were assigned to be male at birth are female (trans women). Some people who were assigned to be female at birth are male (trans men). Some transgender people have medically transitioned, undergoing gender-affirming surgeries and hormonal treatments, while other transgender people do not choose any form of medical transition. There is no uniform set of procedures sought by transgender people who pursue medical transition. Transgender people may identify as female, male, or nonbinary; may or may not have been born with intersex traits; may or may not use gender-neutral pronouns; and may or may not use more specific terms to describe their genders, such as agender, genderqueer, gender fluid, Two Spirit, bigender, pangender, gender nonconforming, or gender variant.
About the term nonbinary: Gender identity and expression may be thought of in binary terms, such as male and female, men and women, masculine and feminine. Many transgender people fall on this binary. Trans women are women, trans men are men. Some transgender people do not fall on this binary because they identify as nonbinary, agender, gender fluid, gender nonconforming, etc. Nonbinary people’s gender identity and expression may not conform to societal norms of masculinity or femininity. Nonbinary people may prefer to be addressed by the pronouns “they/them” in the singular, or simply by their name. Some people use the term “genderqueer” to describe this identity. Queer is a term that is offensive to some when used as a derogatory term, while others have reclaimed and self-defined the word as a form of empowerment.
About the term intersex: Intersex people are born with sex characteristics (including genitals, gonads, and chromosome patterns) that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies. Intersex is an umbrella term used to describe a wide range of natural bodily variations. In some cases, intersex traits are visible at birth, while in others they are not apparent until puberty. Some chromosomal intersex variations may not be physically apparent at all. For more information, please see Intersex fact sheet (PDF).
Yes. Oregon created a nonbinary gender option in 2017 through an administrative action applying to drivers’ licenses and identification cards. Similarly, the DMV for Washington, D.C. began offering an “X” in addition to “M” and “F” in June of 2017. Other countries, like New Zealand, moved in a similar direction in 2016.
By University of California policy, the conversion of all existing single-occupancy or single-stall restrooms in all UC-owned buildings from gender-specific to gender-inclusive facilities is complete. For more information, see https://blink.ucsd.edu/facilities/services/general/personal/restrooms.html.
However, access remains an issue, as some people must go from the top floor of a building, outside, across a street, and into another building to access a single-occupancy or single-stall restroom. Conversion of some multi-stall restrooms into multi-stall gender-inclusive restrooms, or remodeling facilities to add additional single-occupancy or single-stall restrooms, addresses this issue.
Gender identity and expression may be thought of in binary terms: Male and female, men and women, masculine and feminine.
Many transgender people fall on this binary. Trans women are women, trans men are men. However, some transgender people do not fall on this binary because they identify as nonbinary, agender, gender fluid, genderqueer, gender nonconforming, etc.
Sex may be thought of in binary terms: Male and female, boys and girls. This is typically assigned at birth.
Some people are born with chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, and/or genitalia that do not meet the medical standards of male or female. These infants are intersex.
Intersex persons often may not know their gender identity until adolescence.
"Hermaphrodite" is an outdated and inappropriate term for the community.
The UC Presidential Policy on Gender Recognition and Lived Name went into effect November 6, 2020. The policy was created after the Gender Recognition Act passed (California Senate Bill 179), which went into effect January 1, 2019.
The University of California and UC San Diego do not tolerate discrimination based on:
These policies include but are not limited to: Academic Personnel M015 – The University of California Policy on Faculty Conduct and the Administration of Discipline; the University of California Personnel Policies for Staff Members and UC San Diego Implementing Procedures, Appendix II – Personnel Policies for Senior Managers; the UC San Diego Student Conduct Code; UC San Diego House Officer Policy and Procedure Document; and applicable university collective bargaining agreements.
A quick and easy way to communicate that you have some level of knowledge around our trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, and gender nonconforming community is to share your pronouns in signature lines, business cards, name tags, and introductions.
On signature lines, business cards and name tags:
In introductions:
For more information on gender-neutral, inclusive pronouns, please see http://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/English_neutral_pronouns and https://mypronouns.org.
Gendered
Inclusive
These FAQs were updated Jaunary 8, 2025.