Our current advocacy is focused on opposing policies leading to the deadnaming of trans students in our local communities in Germantown and Nashville, TN.

Transgender individuals often go by new chosen name, and their birth name can cause great emotional trauma. Many studies find that use of preferred names leads to reduced negative mental health outcomes and increased positive ones. For example, University of Texas Austin researchers found that greater use of preferred names is “associated with lower depression, suicidal ideation, and suicidal behavior.” Many other studies support this as well. As such, it is important to refer to them with their chosen name if they have one. However, multiple policies lead to deadnaming, sometimes intentionally and other times incidentally. We have identified some of these policies in Tennessee and are actively working against them. 

One example of such policy requires teachers and staff to only use parentally approved names for their child, meaning parents can ban the use of their child’s preferred chosen name and force their deadnaming. This policy has been implemented in Germantown Municipal School District (GMSD) and was specifically targeted against trans students. We combed through school district policies from across Tennessee and not yet found a similar rule in any of these school district. Learn more about our work against this GMSD policy: