“If you are addressed with the wrong pronoun, it can plunge you into a depressive hole, no matter how nice the day before was,” says Bernie Stöffler. Like so many other students, the electrical engineering and information technology student registered online for her lectures at the beginning of the semester. When she opens her e-mail inbox and scrolls through the course registrations at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the name that Stöffler’s parents gave her when she was born is still there.
But since February, the 22-year-old has given up this first name because Stöffler is a trans woman. She introduces herself to friends and strangers as a woman and is addressed accordingly. For the IT systems of the TUM, however, she is still a person with a male gender and a male first name. If she logs into the Moodle learning platform, receives automated emails from the university or retrieves her timetable in the TUMonline administration system, her filed name will be used.
According to the German Society for Transidentity and Intersexuality (DGTI), this leads to “mental suffering” in students, which has a negative effect on the learning behavior of those affected. About three percent of the population and students are considered to be intersex or transgender. The problems also affect everyday university life, says Jenny Wilken, head of the office of the Federal Association of Trans*. People would be forced to come out in courses if the wrong name was noted on the attendance lists.
Officially changing your own name takes time. According to the “Transsexual Law” (TSG), an application to the court and two psychological reports are required. The associated investigations are considered degrading, the court proceedings are associated with costs and can last up to 20 months.
“As a trans person, you have a lot of things you can only wait for during your transition,” says Bernie Stöffler. She feels powerless because: “Waiting means doing nothing.” She founded the “Queer” working group in her student council. And she wrote to the TU asking the university to change its name without an official procedure. Because many universities no longer require the official change.
This is how it works at the universities in Augsburg, Regensburg, Würzburg and Bayreuth, as well as at the Technical University of Nuremberg and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Of the three large universities in the state capital, only Munich University of Applied Sciences (HM) is taking this path. “Unfortunately, Munich is still a black hole within Bavaria,” says Jenny Wilken from the Bundesverband Trans*.
A legal reform is in progress
At Stöffler’s request, the IT department of the TU adapted the so-called “display name”, but it only changed the name for zoom conferences. The queer department and the student representation of the TU (AStA) confirm that Stöffler is not an isolated case. Victims would ask for help more often. Things are similar at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University. The LMU is also demanding an official change in civil status – and the LMU queer department criticizes this attitude there too: “They pretend that they are listening to us, but then it’s always dismissive, ‘We’ll take care of it’,” so Lee Redepenning from the Unit Head.
On request, both LMU and TU state that in the case of documents that went to authorities, for example, the person must be clearly assignable. The TU emphasizes the necessary “legal certainty” and refers to the “display name” as an alternative option. She also points out that politicians are working on simplifying the official change in gender entries. The LMU also refers to the planned legal reform. When this will come, however, is not yet foreseeable.
The queer departments of the two universities criticize this reluctance. It is unfortunate that the university is no longer committed, says Lee Redepenning from the LMU Queer Department. Paul Oppenrieder from the TUM-AStA and former queer consultant says: “That simply means: ‘We don’t want to bother, you make us work.’ But this inaction is just as bad as active discrimination.”
She found a solution privately
Jenny Wilken from the Federal Association of Trans* accuses the Munich universities of “stalling tactics”: “TUM and LMU hand over responsibility to politicians.” But even the self-determination law will not solve all the problems in her opinion: “If students don’t want to come out to their families and therefore don’t change their official name, they still need the opportunity to use their self-determined name at the universities,” she demands.
The issue will continue to be debated. Paul Oppenrieder is considering introducing it to the TU Senate. The queer department of the TU is considering demonstrating publicly. The queer department of the LMU would take part in such an action, says Lee Redepenning, but depending on when the self-determination law comes, they want to wait and then criticize the “remaining gaps”.
For Bernie Stöffler this means: wait and see. She found a solution privately. With the help of a computer program, your filed name will be automatically replaced on the website with your self-determined name. But that doesn’t work in the mail program. In emails from the TU she will continue to read the name she has filed.