This year was supposed to be easier. When people can’t see you it’s harder for them to misgender you. Lie. People won’t assume your pronouns based on your voice. Lie. Online it will be easier to correct people. Lie. It was all going to get better though because, through the work of student advocates and representatives, George Brown College (GBC) realized what needed to be done. Lie.

In November of 2020, SAGBC representative Robby Thompson spoke up at a board of directors meeting regarding the need for correct names and pronouns to be added to digital learning platforms, a change that should have been implemented prior to online school even starting. This movement was sparked by conversations he was having with students where they expressed feeling exhausted and unsafe as a result of misgendering and deadnaming. Support was garnered at that meeting and GBC vowed to have those updates come into effect by February 2021. But that’s not what came to be.  

By the end of February, GBC had only followed through on half their promise. Students could now update their names across all platforms but were unable to define their pronouns. The only place a comment on pronouns could be found was on their announcement page which stated that pronouns could not yet be added and would come later. No explanation as to why or when later means and now, four months later, there are no updates.

Pronouns are pieces of someone’s identity that, when misused, can and will have serious ramifications. Misgendering may be categorized as a microaggression, but that term does not exist to downplay the harm that it causes. From increasing one’s sense of gender dysphoria to making it more likely that they will experience depression and anxiety around going to class, trans students like myself are expected to push through these barriers and achieve the same as their cisgender counterparts.

Upon finding out that names could be changed, I disregarded the note that pronouns could not yet be added and put ‘they/them’ into my name change. Soon after I received an email stating that they are unable to process my request at this time as “The intent of preferred name is to capture changes to first name and not to capture personal pronouns.”

A couple of days later, exhausted, I messaged back asking what specific rules or regulations are dictating that students cannot include pronouns in their names. I also asked for more specific information on when the college expected to provide implement the changes it promised. A month later, I received a response that my name change with pronouns had been approved on a case basis. No answers to my other questions were provided.

Since then, GBC’s communication has not only voiced that these changes were a success, but GBC president Anne Sado has even recently championed this change in her Pride release to the students.

“Finally, I want to remind you that George Brown College has created a new process for employees and students who would like to use a chosen/preferred name other than their legal name,” said Sado in a release that went out to the student body on Tuesday. “The name you use is an important part of identity and expression for many people, especially for those who identify as transgender, non-binary, or gender non-conforming.”

The change which Sado is celebrating not only took almost a full year of remote-learning to implement, it’s also only half the job. In the meantime, trans students are still suffering from the inability to display their pronouns and have been left without any idea when they’ll be able to. Pride Month is about an ongoing pursuit of queer liberation, not offering scraps and acting as if you have provided a buffet.

I was fortunate enough to have my pronouns added to my name, but by then, not only did it not matter, the layout provided is inaccessible and what I had to do to get there was simply unfair. I should not have to demand answers on why my pronouns cannot be featured by name to provide me with the bare minimum of respect that is addressing someone correctly.

Trans people are constantly expected to go above and beyond to convince others to respect them. When changes like this are pursued, a congratulation is deemed necessary and when we say too little too late, we’re told we’re being harsh and just need patience.

The time for waiting is over and if GBC wants to celebrate itself this Pride Month then it needs to not only fulfill the promises made in 2020 but consult trans students further so that they will have a safer place to learn whether they return online or in-person come fall.