Hello!  My name is Neil Klein, I am a third semester Composition Major at Boston Conservatory at Berklee.  I am excited to continue studying at my dream school, but I also have a document that lists 14 anti-trans events that have taken place to me and my peers on campus within the last two semesters. 

Did that sentence surprise you?  Did it maybe seem unorganized, unexpected, and jarring?

Good.  Because earlier this week when my deadname was announced loudly in the caf by a Berklee staff member, it was jarring, unexpected, and left me to think that some of Berklee’s systems are unorganized. 

But this is not news.  Not to me, and not to my trans and nonbinary peers.  

For months, I have been deadnamed, misgendered, and mistreated.  My friends have been deadnamed, misgendered, and mistreated.  We are proactive -- we have to be.  We send emails imploring this treatment to be ended.  But in my personal experience, every email I’ve gotten back, and every meeting I have had has left me with no answers as to why this keeps happening to me and my community.

There is a form on Berklee’s website that I am often told to fill out.  It supposedly submits a request to change one’s legal name to their chosen name.  It does not work.  It does not work.

There needs to be something that works.  

Legally changing one’s name is hard, and often expensive.  No one should have to go through this process just to be respected and seen.  

I feel ignored and discarded.  So, I am publicly asking Berklee College of Music to create a system that changes a trans/nonbinary student’s deadname to their chosen name in every database.  

I am asking this to be a priority. 

Show to everyone that the trans community at Berklee is important.  Show us that we're valued.  Use a system that works, that changes our names, displays our pronouns, and puts to rest the abhorrent treatment that trans and nonbinary students have had to endure.

Thank you.