Most mornings I wake up to a random barrage of notifications on my iPhone. Monday, June 1, was no different, except for this from my Twitter account:

“@ENews and 15 other people you follow followed @Caitlyn_Jenner on Twitter.”

As quickly as I could, I peered through the Twitter account. Paired with the amazing cover of Vanity Fair, she tweeted: “…can’t wait for you to get to know her/me.”

Welcome to the world, Caitlyn.

Ms. Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce Jenner, revealed her new self to the world on June 1, doing so with a sense of regal and calculated grandeur. In a matter of minutes after the reveal, Annie Leibovitz’ pictures of Jenner from the photoshoot widely circulated the internet, provoking much discourse about gender identity and gender expression.

What we must remember is that not every transgender person is Caitlyn Jenner.

No Annie Leibovitz photoshoot. No Vanity Fair exposé. No outpouring of admiration from millions of followers on Twitter.

The situation for the common Caitlyn is quite different from the glamorous revelation this past week. A recent report by GLAAD list various difficulties transgender people face in America today: openly transgender individuals cannot serve openly in the military; changing a birth certificate requires sexual reassignment surgery in most states, including West Virginia; and they face discrimination in housing, employment and education.

Currently, Marshall University does not prohibit discrimination on the grounds of gender identity and gender expression. We need to change that. We must ensure that every son and daughter of Marshall, whether cisgender or transgender, is protected from injustice.

To do this, I will propose a resolution in the Marshall University Student Senate that will encourage all relevant bodies to amend our policies to include transgender individuals. Being Student Senate, we do not have the authority to change any laws outside of our own Student Government Constitution; however, our recommendations, combined with the voices of the student body, the faculty and the classified staff, will send the message that we want our university to be inclusive toward the transgender community.

Just focusing on the standards of Marshall University would be obtuse to the cause as a whole. We must remember that Marshall is not an exclave from general society; the quality of our lives, especially for marginalized groups, can be dependent on legislation passed by our state and federal legislators.

Furthering our goals at Marshall will require several pieces of state and federal legislation, the most well-known being the Employment and Housing Non-Discrimination Act (EHNDA). A transgender individual, or any LGBT individual, should not have to worry about being fired from a job or evicted from an apartment just because of who they are. EHNDA would prevent that.

Granted, passing this legislation will be hard, probably unlikely with the current political landscape in Charleston and Washington. However, 2016 is near. The next time you approach your elected officials, ask them: “What are you going to do for the common Caitlyn?”

Alexander O’Donnell can be contacted at [email protected].