Who’s Under the LGBTQ+ Umbrella? Understanding Nonbinary College Students’ Experiences on Campus

• In Event: Attitudes toward and experiences of transgender and gender diverse youth

Abstract

Transgender emerging adults (that is, those whose gender identity does not align with their sex assigned at birth) have substantially different experiences on college campuses than their cisgender peers (Duran & Nicolazzo, 2017; Goldberg, 2018; Goldberg, Kuvalanka, & Black, 2019; James et al., 2016), especially in terms of their mental health concerns (Goldberg, Kuvalanka, Budge, et al., 2019; Oswalt & Lederer, 2017) and safety and belonging on campus (Flint et al., 2019; Seelman, 2016). Much of the current literature, though, groups binary transgender people—that is, trans men and women—and nonbinary transgender people—those who may identify as genderqueer, agender, nonbinary, or another labels that indicates a gender identity beyond the man-woman binary (Matsuno & Budge, 2017; Richards et al., 2016). Some estimates indicate that approximately one-third of the transgender community identifies as nonbinary (Matsuno & Budge, 2017) and that nonbinary emerging adults often have substantially different experiences than their binary trans peers (Beemyn, 2019; Rankin & Beemyn, 2012). Therefore, quantitative research must disaggregate student reports so that scholars and practitioners can better understand and support nonbinary students.

To that end, we use a national sample of college students (aged 18-30) to compare the experiences of nonbinary emerging adults with their binary and cisgender peers in terms of campus safety, victimization, mental health concerns, and extracurricular involvement. The selection yielded a sample of 46,510 with an average age of 20.33 years (SD = 2.11). Gender groups included: (a) nonbinary (n = 753; 1.6%), (b) trans women (n = 355; 0.8%), (c) trans men (n = 266; 0.6%), (d) cis women (n = 31,919; 68.6%), and (e) cis men (n = 13,217; 28.4%).

The main findings for nonbinary emerging adults reveal complexities, as their experiences are at times unique and at others are similar to their binary trans peers or from cis women. In terms of psychological distress, stress, and thoughts of suicide, nonbinary students report significantly worse outcomes than their binary trans or cis peers. Additionally, nonbinary individuals are significantly less likely to be involved in sports on campus or in social sororities or fraternities than their binary trans and cis peers. In terms of victimization, though, nonbinary students’ experiences were similar to their trans woman peers: both were significantly more likely to report being stalked and experiencing sexual assault than cis men, cis women, and trans men. In other ways, nonbinary students’ experiences were more similar to trans men’s: both groups reported being verbally threatened more and seeking out counseling support on campus more than trans women, cis men, or cis women. In terms of their feelings of campus safety, nonbinary, trans man, and trans woman students felt less safe than cis men and cis women during the day, whereas at night, nonbinary, trans woman, and cis woman students reported less safety than cis men and trans men.

This presentation will explore implications for both researchers and for those who work with transgender emerging adults or develop policies that may govern their experiences on college campuses, and concrete paths forward will be offered.

Authors

• Robert Marx, San José State University
  Presenting Author

• Frank J Peña, San Jose State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Cara S Maffini, San José State University
  Non-Presenting Author