ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a few strategies for college teachers across disciplines who want to begin to develop gender-affirming pedagogical practices. It focuses mainly on first-day procedures that can begin the process of disrupting the linguistic system that requires gender attribution based on the assumptions of the speaker——usually faulty assumptions about bodies or gendered stereotypes. The chapter recommends introducing students to a gender attribution system based on the self-determination of the person being spoken about. Most colleges require a legal name change such as a court order or new state ID to change the name on student records, and the process of legally changing one’s name is a long, difficult, and often expensive process. Gender variant students have learned that college classrooms are not safe spaces, and if we intend to make our classrooms more gender-affirming, we must account for our own use of pronouns.
