Applications for Warwick Gender Expression Fund re-open amid funding issues

Applications for Warwick Gender Expression Fund (GEF) have re-opened this year to provide short-term affirming support to transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming students at the University. The applications will run until 19 February 2023.

This is the second consecutive year of the funds operation. It is ran by Warwick Pride and supported by Warwick Students’ Union, as well as the University.

The fund will purchase and distribute up to £50 of gender-affirming items to successful applicants, including, but not limited to: clothing, chest binders, and breast forms.

To access the fund, students must identify as transgender, non-binary, or gender-diverse. Applicants identify and link items they wish to have purchased for them. Applications are assessed by transgender, non-binary, and gender-diverse members of Warwick Pride executive team between 20-26 February.

Should the community fund have more leftover money, they state that they plan to run a second round of applications at the beginning of Term three.

On their website, the GEF cite that 1% of the students on campus explicitly identify differently from the gender they were assigned at birth and add that the real figures may be higher due to barriers to disclosure. With a student population of 29,000, there are at least 290 students on campus who identify differently from the gender they were assigned at birth.

We’d need a little bit more security so I think a priority we need to establish is to lobby the central university for money

– Dixon Gao-Cheung

According to Ares Osborn, an organiser for the GEF, the fund supported 66 students last year, with an average of £34 per person. They added that: “By far and away, the biggest reason given for accessing the fund was that being trans is expensive, especially on a tight student budget – certain gender-affirming items can be very costly. You often have to buy a whole new wardrobe, sometimes you have to pay out-of-pocket for hormone therapy, and you may not have the financial support of your parents.

“We collected feedback from those who benefited from the fund, and it was overwhelmingly positive for a variety of reasons: improving mental health, contributing to gender euphoria, allowing access to items people would not have been able to purchase, and leading to a more equitable university experience.

“Given the recent increase in the cost of living, we are expecting to receive more applications this year, and hopefully the slighter greater amount of funding we have access to this time will allow us to buy items for more people. We’re still looking for guaranteed recurring funding for future years.”

Speaking about the future of the GEF, Dixon Gao-Cheung, the first-year representative of Warwick PLAN and Campaigns Officer at Warwick Pride, told The Boar:

“The biggest problem right now is the security of funding… to sustain the long-term vision [of the GEF], we’d need a little bit more security so I think a priority we need to establish is to lobby the central university for money.

“We understand that the funding may be difficult for the Students’ Union to achieve, but for the central university… an expanded budget of £3,500 would have a miniscule impact on their bottom line… but I think the impact it’d have on campus would be incredibly high and incredibly valuable.”

More information can be found on the Gender Expression Fund website.