Sunday, March 25, 2012

Trans* Coming Out Letter to Professors

So here's the letter I said I would post, hopefully it will be helpful to someone. Again I stole it from somewhere on tumblr (if someone knows the source feel free to leave it in the comments!), and modified it to suite my purposes. Things in bold, are probably things you need to change to fit your situation. I changed the letter somewhat to protect privacy, but otherwise this is the exact letter I sent to most my professors, and received all very positive responses.



Dear Prof. Last name

My name is Natalie lastname. I will be taking your Intro to ECE Design course and lab this quarter (EE103 on MWF from 11-12 and the lab is on Thurday 3-5). I am writing because I have a unique situation that I feel you should be aware of. On your roster, my name appears as "LEGAL NAME". That is my full and legal name, however, I go by the name "Natalie lastname". Please do not misunderstand that this is merely a matter of preference. I am a transgender individual, and therefore, being addressed as my proper name and use of female (she/her) pronouns is essential to my academic success and personal well-being. I would greatly appreciate if you would kindly respect my name and use female (she/her) pronouns, starting with roll call on the first day (If you do that) so that there is less confusion for the other students. I will also be signing my papers as Natalie lastname, so if you could either let your grader know (if you have a TA who does that), or send me their email so I can forward them the same message that would be great! Please do not hesitate to e-mail me back if you have any questions or need me to clarify this further.  Thank you in advance, and I am looking forward to the first day of class.


Respectfully,


Natalie lastname


Again hopes this helps someone out somewhere. Cheers.
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4 comments:

  1. MercMarch 27, 2012 at 3:03 PM

    Have you sent it out to professors? Have there been any negative feedback?

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    Replies
    1. NatalieMarch 28, 2012 at 6:00 AM

      Yep, sent it to all my professors at the beginning of this quarter, and didn't receive any negative responses. Ironically the only place where there was a mess up was with my womens and gender studies teacher who I knew and had talked to prior to enrolling, and she called my old name during roll call, so I didn't say anything and waited until the end of class to talk to her, and she apologized profusely for the mess up.

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    2. UnknownJune 24, 2013 at 7:54 PM

      Did you have a relationship with your professors prior to writing this letter? I'm sort of in the same situation, however I'm just about to finish up my college career, and I'm planning on going back to school my correct gender in the fall. I'd like to give my professors the heads up.

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  2. AnonymousMarch 27, 2013 at 12:01 AM

    I have to say that your post really helped me. I'm starting my first term at a college right now and I used this as a template for emails to my instructors. Still anxiously waiting for a reply... but thank you a thousand times for this post.

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