Trans Reform: an initiative for the recognition of transgender rights in a university in Lima, Peru
Authors: Valeria Roldán, Gabriel Talledo
Journal: The Lancet Global Health (2022)

The Peruvian Government does not recognise the identity of transgender and non-binary citizens. This barrier to access affirming identity documents affects access to education, health, and work. No medical school in the country addresses transgender health. Moreover, the experience of institutional discrimination makes this population one of the most vulnerable. We aimed to implement an institutional reform that allowed trans an non-binary student to change their name and gender in the university's documents.The Trans Reform aims at reducing discrimination through allowing transgender students from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia to change their name and gender on official school documentation, making it mandatory for everyone in the institution to be educated on trans rights and health, and implementing neutral bathrooms across campus. The principal goal of this programme is to create, sustain, and continuously upgrade a safe space for transgender and non-binary students. We performed a survey to explore the prevalence of transgender and non-binary people as well as their insight on the Trans Reform. The survey was offered to all students within campus and 387 answers were received. Questions included career and year of studies, gender identity, sexual orientation, whether they agreed the reform was necessary and their perceived safety of campus for trans students. The students who self-identified identified as transgender and non-binary were contacted to participate in a focus group to further explore their experience in university along with their expectations and suggestions of the initiative. We will sustain the reform through educational interventions around gender diversity and feedback from our peers.In the survey, five students identified as non-binary and two as transgender men. They reported that the main form of discrimination they faced were insults and mockery from peers and teachers. All of non-cisgender students manifested that they did not feel safe to report past incidents with college authorities. Of all 387 students surveyed, 95% agreed that allowing the name and gender change in databases was necessary and 30% manifested that the university was not a safe space for trans and non-binary students. Two students accepted to participate in a focus group and share their testimonies. One student referred to having to drop for a semester because of not feeling welcomed on campus. Emphasis was put on the anxiety of needing to use campus bathrooms and having to answer to professors who refused to use their chosen name. A student said that a psychologist on campus tried to convince him he was not trans. Our project was approved by the University's Council on August 11, 2021. By February 2022, we have implemented the change of name and gender in the institutional email and the Blackboard platform. These changes apply to the whole university. We are actively working for the other university platforms to apply these changes. A pilot educational module including a webinar and a clinical simulation with a transgender patient directed to 4th year medical students was implemented in the second semester of 2021. Preliminary results showed an improvement in level of knowledge and scores in the Transphobia scale but are pending publication.With this milestone we become the first Peruvian Medical School to institutionally advocate for transgender and non-binary students. The next step is to implement courses on transgender rights and health across the curriculum. Furthermore, we hope our precedent serves to encourage Peruvian universities to actively advocate for their gender diverse students. This uptake would positively impact transgender people's access to education and envision a national health system free of transphobia. However, our initiative is limited by the absence of legislature that protects or recognises gender diversity, which is a breakthrough goal in favour of transgender rights.None.