LGBTQIA+ Support

SJSU is committed to supporting its LGBTQIA+ community, and is aware of the high rates of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and violence this community faces. Title IX provides important protections to LGBTQIA+ students and employees who experience discrimination, harassment, and/or retaliation that impedes their access to education and a safe work environment. Title IX also protects all SJSU community members who experience sexual violence. These Title IX protections exist irrespective of the gender, gender identity, gender expression, and/or sexual orientation of the Complainant or the Respondent. This includes instances where the Parties involved are of the same gender.

Title IX also protects SJSU community members, including those who identify as transgender and gender nonconforming, from gender-based discrimination, harassment and/or retaliation. These concepts are defined below. 

Gender-Based Harassment

Includes any unwelcome verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct against a person based on their sex, gender identity (e.g., nonbinary, transgender), gender expression, and/or sexual orientation (actual or perceived).

Gender-Based Discrimination

Includes any adverse action taken against a person based on their sex, gender identity (e.g., nonbinary, transgender), gender expression, and/or sexual orientation (actual or perceived).

Gender-based harassment and discrimination may or may not be sexual in nature. Such misconduct could include acts of aggression, intimidation, or hostility based on gender, gender expression, or gender stereotyping, or threats of non-consensual disclosure of a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation (i.e., “outing”). This could also look like harassment or discrimination based on a person not conforming to stereotypical notions of masculinity and femininity (e.g., a student not being allowed to present in class because they are not dressed in a gender conforming way).

Reporting LGBTQIA+ Discrimination

We, in the Office for Title IX and Equal Opportunity, are available to receive and respond to reports of sex and gender based discrimination, including those related to discrimination against those in the LGBTQIA+ community at SJSU.

For more information on resources available to our LGBTQIA+ community, you may also contact the SJSU Pride Center or the SJSU Gender Equity Center.

If you are a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, and experienced discrimination, harassment, and/or retaliation based on any other protected status, you may still report to the Office for Title IX and Equal Opportunity.