When Jak Grubbs identified as a lesbian, the Holland senior felt more accepted at Central Michigan University. Now as an open transgender person, Grubbs experiences more discrimination.

Grubbs said they have been approached more than once to be asked if they are going to have gender reassignment surgery.

Grubbs identifies as non-binary, meaning they don’t fit strictly into male or female and use the pronouns they, them and their.

“I’m not a trans man, so no, but it’s none of their business because it’s what’s in my pants, not theirs,” they said. “You can care about my pants, but not what’s in them. It’s like a guy asking a girl if the carpet matches the drapes. It’s just as inappropriate.”

When a person is transgender, even things like using the restroom becomes a potentially uncomfortable or dangerous task, Grubbs said. After being stopped from going into certain bathrooms a number of times, Grubbs, who lives off campus, said they now wait until they go home to use the bathroom.

“Trans issues need to be included in the curriculum so the general population of the school is educated and take steps to make it more inclusive, like more gender neutral bathrooms,” Grubbs said. “Even one in every bathroom would be a start since you don’t think about it until you’re in the situation.”

Students enrolled in SOC 305 and SWK 350 conducted 402 telephone interviews with a random sample of Central Michigan University undergraduates using a computer-assisted telephone interviewing lab between Oct. 6 and Oct. 23.

Although survey respondents reported believing that LGBTQ people continue to face discrimination in today’s society, more than half said that CMU does not give transgender issues enough attention.

For example, more than half of the respondents have had no time devoted to transgender issues in their current or completed courses at CMU.

“I’m not surprised because trans issues are newer for mainstream society,” Grubbs said. “They’re only just now incorporating LGBTQ issues into the curriculum, so it makes sense. It’s not surprising, but it’s an issue because the problems will keep occurring as long as no one is educated on them.”

Royal Oak senior Kai Niezgoda almost expects the harassment of passing cars or glares from strangers whenever they walk down a street with a friend. However, they are fearful of what it may escalate to.

A majority of the street harassment is strangers yelling discriminatory slurs at Niezgoda, which is “innocuous enough," but Neizgoda said the underlying message is clear: people like them just aren't welcome here.

“When there is a terrifying but realistic possibility that the car will pull over and those men will get out of it, it's not such a small thing anymore,” Niezgoda said. “It’s more likely to happen when I’m in a group with other queer or trans people. It makes you feel incredibly unsafe.”

Of the respondents, 42.8 percent of students reported having no interactions with transgender people on campus.

Mary Senter, director of the Center for Applied Research and the director of the survey, said this may be because there are few transgender people. However, things may not be as they appear: students could be friends with LGBTQ people without being aware of it, making it likely there’s more transgender people than are out publicly.

The American culture and the "prestigious" medical community have difficulty thinking about the people who don’t fit that exact code, Senter said. Part of American culture is backed up by the medical community who wants to create two categories of people from birth: male or female.

“I think both LGBTQ and the feminist movement has encouraged all of us to think about gender in a more fluid way,” Senter said. “Why has there been a change? Social movements and brave people coming out. There’s been less change in the transgender community because there are fewer people and because they really challenge those boxes of male or female.”

When it comes to the acceptance of different sexualities at CMU, the survey results were largely positive.

When Senter saw that more than 90 percent of students supported the Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage, she was positively surprised. Ten years ago, that percentage would have been unthinkable, she said.

With the previous environment being so unwelcoming, LGBTQ people were more unwilling to come out. Over 80 percent of the recent surveyors reported having a friend on the LGBTQ spectrum, a number that would have been much lower in previous years, Senter said.

Senter said the number may have been lower in previous years because of the hostile environment surrounding the LGBTQ community, making them less willing to come out to friends and family.

“I think ten years ago, fewer people would report that they had LGBTQ friends and acquaintances,” she said. “Their roommate or friend in class may have been LGBTQ and you just didn’t know it. Now there’s more support to those who come out and what that means then is that all of us recognize that we’ve had friends, family and acquaintances that are LGBTQ and we just didn’t know it. They knew it, but we didn’t.”

Twining freshman Markie Heideman always knew he was different, but didn’t realize how until late middle school when his hormones began to kick in different than the other boys in his class.

Heideman came from a small town, graduating with only 11 other students. Having such a small number of peers made an already hard situation even more complicated.

Heideman came to CMU already out and accepting of his sexuality. However, he was still pleasantly surprised by the amount of support instead of just tolerance he found among both his straight and fellow LGBTQ peers.

He said he never feels the need to water down his personality in fear of any harassment.

“Coming from my small town to CMU, I felt so loved and accepted by not only people you’d think -- girls tend to be more open-armed -- but everyone seemed to accept me and I think that’s phenomenal,” he said. “There wasn't too much hatred in my old community, but it was more like tolerance then acceptance.”