The Missouri Students Association recently passed a resolution 51-35, which supported the University of Missouri including gender identity in its non-discrimination policy. This change in the M-Book reflects an update that is long overdue. Actually, why the hell has this taken so long?

Three years ago, IncludeME, a campaign to include clauses for non-discrimination against gender identity and expression at MU, had a huge campus presence. If you’ve ever been to the MU Student Center, on the second floor on the Center for Student Involvement side, among the wall of acrylic plaques with photos showcasing campus organizations and lists of former campus leaders, there is a powerful picture of IncludeME supporters. They’re holding hands around Speaker’s Circle during a Day of Silence protest as Brother Jed yells who-knows-what from the circle’s center. That was the height of IncludeME’s charge to make this campus safer for everyone. They were successful in part: In 2009, MSA added gender identity to its non-discrimination clause after an 82 percent approval through a student referendum. That didn’t affect the official MU or UM System conduct process, but it was something.

MU has the potential to be a leader in the UM System and in the state with regard to establishing institutional standards for the protection of students, staff and faculty of all gender identities.

Before I lose anyone, let me provide a simple definition of gender identity. Gender identity is “a person’s sense of being masculine, feminine or other gendered.” I’m hoping that it doesn’t shatter too much of any of my readers’ world views that gender is not limited to man and woman, that it is socially constructed and includes a set of norms and societal expectations and manifests in a myriad of different expressions. This isn’t a gender studies class, so there won’t be a quiz after this column, but how you treat others is another test entirely.

OK, so what was I saying about the potential power MU had again? Oh yes, the opportunity to be a safer university for all people. A few months ago, the TransAction Team launched trans.missouri.edu, a website known as “Trans* at Mizzou.” Trans* at Mizzou outlines resources and facilities friendly to trans* people, lists terms to educate potential trans* allies and describes current MU policies that are friendly or unfriendly to anyone whose gender identity or expression may come into question.

I would like to remind everyone that websites and resource centers to educate and protect those within the LGBTQ community are not 100 percent saturated across the state and country. I continue to gawk at the fact that not all UM System schools have resource centers (looking at you, Rolla), and that other “prominent” or otherwise highly regarded universities such as Washington University in St. Louis also lack a physical center for LGBTQ people.

We have a supportive student government, established campus resources and an administration that seems willing to include protections for gender expression at least at the MU level in the M-Book, so it’s time that we once _again_ push for system-wide change. Yes, I said again.

Now here we are, standing at what could be a critical period for raising the consciousness of issues surrounding gender identity at MU, but it’s time to also think system-wide and go beyond MU. If we’re supposed to be the model state school, we’re going to need to get folks at a table to mobilize a new campaign and enact change for the entire university system, and hopefully, state. Spring has sprung and it’s time to spring forward into a more inclusive future.