The structure of several colleges’ gender expression funds, which require recipients to make payments before receiving reimbursement, may be preventing students from accessing critical gender affirming items.

Gender expression funds are designed to help students afford items that help them feel more comfortable with their gender identities, including but not limited to chest binders and packers.

Girton, Selwyn, and Queens’ College, among others, require students to purchase gender-affirming items before applying to be reimbursed.

This has raised concerns about potential inequality in the schemes, and suggestions that funds are not accessible to less well-off students who most need financial support.

Quinn Vakharia, Girton’s JCR Transgender and Non-Binary officer told Varsity that the reimbursement structure “may deter people if they do not have the necessary funds already to purchase what they need and wait for compensation”.

The degree of support also varies by college, with Homerton and Lucy Cavendish, among others, not offering gender expression funds.

Issues surrounding anonymity have also emerged related to the funds. Many colleges’ reimbursement mechanisms involve sharing the recipient’s bank details with multiple people. Some schemes require recipients to send bank details and receipts to an LGBTQ+ Officer, who passes them an anonymised version to the treasurer, before the recipient is then reimbursed through the treasurer.

Despite this emphasis on anonymity, one college’s transgender rep told Varsity that “having a chain like this means you have to rely on communication between multiple people, which is easy to fall apart […] In reality, it is easy for the student requesting funds to be put into a position where they are responsible for messaging and sending bank information to multiple people, rather than one. If your bank account details show a deadname or other private information, it can be distressing to share this with more people”.

Some colleges have made moves to address these challenges. Fitzwilliam, after running their fund as a reimbursement scheme for a year, have now restructured their fund. According to the college’s JCR Trans and Nonbinary officer, “the transgender and nonbinary officer buys the product and then arranges a meeting with the applicant or puts it in their pidge.” This removes “the financial barrier for the applicant and potential issues around exchanging bank details.”

The SU also has a Gender Expression Fund, which can be accessed by students from all colleges. Items are purchased on recipients’ behalf rather than having to pre-purchase and await reimbursement.

However, Varsity has found the funds available from the SU to be limited.

The fund is currently capped at £50 per person in an academic year. The entire resources of the fund - catering to the whole university community - amounts to £1000, derived from a one-off payment received from the Council budget in the 2020-21 academic year. Meanwhile, the website states: “there is a limited amount of funding available, and once the fund is depleted, no further funding requests will be accepted.” Assuming that recipients access 50 pounds each, the fund can therefore support only 20 students.

The SU, when questioned by Varsity, noted the fund was established as a “pilot”, and that student feedback will be used to inform “the best way to move forward.” A spokesperson for the SU told Varsity “further funding may be explored if this money is depleted. However, there is still ample funding and we encourage applications.”

When asked about the fund, Vakharia said that they were “not previously aware that the SU had a Gender Expression Fund.”

Another student commented: “It ought to be advertised more. It’s in an easily accessible drop-down menu on their website, so someone can easily stumble upon it, which is good, but I don’t think it’s advertised on social media enough. I know I wasn’t aware they had one before our JCR started investigating setting up our own.”

One college’s transgender rep said that they didn’t know much about the fund and thought that it may not be fair for them to comment on it directly, but said that their “lack of knowledge does show potentially limited awareness of the fund.”

The SU told Varsity that they “absolutely welcome student feedback on how to make the fund better, as we want it to be something that works for students who need it.” The SU continued: “We believe strongly in the existence of funds like this so will work to further advertise the fund.”

While the SU’s fund does away with a structure based around reimbursements for gender-affirming products, that model is still in place for travel to-and-from gender-affirming services.

Discussing the reimbursement model used for travel to and from trans-affirming services, the SU told Varsity that “due to the logistics of organising transportation remotely for a student, it was felt this model would create fewer barriers.”

Reimbursement structures are widely used by university and college funds. Whether in the case of gender expression or travel grants, a Caius student told Varsity: “I think the reimbursement scheme has been disadvantageous because it is set out in a way that it cannot help those who need it the most.”