Christian Universities as Cisgendered Organizations

Discriminatory Policies Toward Transgender and Nonbinary Students in Christian Higher Education

Bibliographic Data

ID13089286
AuthorsJonathan S Coley (0000-0002-0829-6171, Oklahoma State University, corresponding author), Donna Ruane Morrison (0000-0003-1923-7406, University of Alabama in Huntsville)
Year2025
Volume13
Issue1
Pages21-43
Publication date2025-12-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Currents (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2329-4965 • E-ISSN: 2329-4973
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/23294965251403944
OpenAlexW7117679381
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited60

A growing body of scholarship shows that many religions promote binary conceptions of gender; a separate line of scholarship on cisgendered organizations examines how binary conceptions of gender pattern many organizational policies. However, little research to date considers how religion shapes organizations’ decisions to maintain cisgendered policies. In this article, we address this gap by analyzing policies toward transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming students at 624 4-year U.S. Christian colleges and universities. Using original data and binary logistic regression, we show that evangelical Protestant colleges and universities are significantly more likely than other Christian colleges and universities to maintain explicitly discriminatory policies toward transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming students. Evangelical Protestant schools are also more likely to lack nondiscrimination policies inclusive of gender identity or gender expression. We argue that these patterns reflect evangelical Protestants’ distinctive moral schemas and identities, which in turn shape the unique organizational characteristics of evangelical Protestant colleges and universities themselves. Our findings advance theory by demonstrating how religion can influence organizations’ decisions to maintain cisgendered policies. The article also contributes to the development of a conceptual framework for understanding why and how cisgendered policies become institutionalized across other organizational contexts

Gender discrimination · Gender identity · Higher education · Identity (music · Protestantism · Religious organization · Scholarship · Sociology of religion · Transgender · Gender Diversity and Inequality · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Workplace Spirituality and Leadership

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