By Melanie Duronio ’26
Staff Writer
Although there are several resources and spaces available on campus for transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming students, none have previously been led by students themselves. Gender +, an organization reinstated this year, aims to change this by creating a safe space for trans students to gather and meet one another.
The group originally began in 2018, but later dissolved due to COVID-19. Currently, Gender + has three new officers — co-chairs Katya Ivanenko ’25 and Oakley Marton ’25, and treasurer Gemma Golovner ’25 — who are bringing the club back.
Ivanenko remembers stepping onto the Mount Holyoke campus their first year and having difficulty finding a community for trans and nonbinary students.
“I would be one of few trans or nonbinary students in my classes,” Ivanenko said. “We just wanted a space and an organization that would help build a community surrounding trans and nonbinary students, because it didn’t exist when we came here our first year.”
In order to form that space, especially for incoming first-years, the three co-officers decided to bring back Gender +. The organization plans to hold events throughout the year encouraging trans students to come together, make new friends and have fun. Potential activities range from small gatherings, such as making s’mores around a campfire, to larger events like a winter formal.
The club also offers support and resources to its members. All standard Gender + emails include a list of links to local counseling and health services available for trans students both on and off campus. Additionally, Gender + has a Discord server that allows members to communicate and share resources with one another, as well as an Instagram account, @genderplusmhc, to alert students of upcoming events.
“I’m pretty excited because I think it’ll be good to have that space that centers [trans] voices,” Ivanenko said.
Gender + is also looking to collaborate with the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and the Jeannette Marks Cultural Center, a community center and safe space for LGBTQIA+ students, staff and faculty. Kijua Sanders-McMurtry, the vice president for equity and inclusion and interim Title IX coordinator, has contributed to trans-inclusive work and policies at Mount Holyoke, and worked briefly with the original Gender + in 2018. Now, she is collaborating with Ivanenko and the new co-officers to re-establish Gender +, connect with local trans alumni for additional resources and generate a greater sense of community off campus.
“With Gender + not being in existence, it made it more difficult to figure out how students we wanted to connect with and to be involved in this work could get plugged in,” Sanders-McMurtry said. “Then I heard one of the students who’s involved say, ‘We’re restarting Gender +.’ … I had to [be mindful not to] overwhelm them with my enthusiasm.”
Past Gender + members created resources and advocated for trans rights. Their work shaped some of the trans-inclusive policies in place at Mount Holyoke today, such as the College’s Chosen Name Policy established in August 2020. After the original Gender + disbanded in 2020, Sanders-McMurtry preserved their research. She will return it to the current Gender + co-officers so they can continue building upon the previous members’ work.
While most of Mount Holyoke’s current resources are focused on supporting trans students, it does not focus on disrupting cisgender privilege. Sanders-McMurtry and the DEI team acknowledge this, and are working on new policies that center around the experiences of trans people, such as the College’s new pronoun policy.
“We’re not going to always get it right, and ‘right’ doesn't have to look perfect in some kind of neat and simple way,” Sanders-McMurtry said. “When we create a policy, like the pronoun policy, [it does not] fix all the ways that trans people are being oppressed. It’s just one step. It’s progress.”
She is also passionate about disrupting the gender binary at Mount Holyoke. Although it is gender diverse, there are still questions about what it means to attend for students who do not identify as women.
“It can be very isolating,” Ivanenko said. “[We] asked people what they [wanted] to see and the majority were like ‘I just want to meet other people.’ The best way to build community is to just have a place where you can do that.”
This is why Ivanenko and Sanders-McMurtry both believe that Gender + is important. “What I hope is that not only will [trans students] create a community for themselves, but as we continue to create a community together … we can actually see all these ways that gender is so messed up.” Sanders-McMurtry said.
As a newly reinstated organization, Gender + is still searching for board members and finding its footing on campus. However, Ivanenko remains excited for the future of Gender + and creating a sense of community for all trans students on campus.
“Hopefully, we create something that’s lasting,” Ivanenko said. “Hopefully we can create something where people feel comfortable being themselves and surrounded by people who may share similar identities to them.”
Editor’s note: Oakley Marton ’25 and Gemma Golovner ’25 are members of the Mount Holyoke News.