Gender Expression Fund

UEA Students’ Union is proud to announce the launch of the Gender Expression Fund, aimed at providing financial support to students who seek to express their gender identity through clothing, accessories, or other items. This initiative demonstrates the Union’s commitment to fostering an inclusive environment on campus and empowering students to embrace their true selves.

Understanding that gender expression is a vital aspect of personal identity, the Gender Expression Fund will offer applicants financial assistance to cover costs associated with acquiring items that aid in their expression.

If you have any questions about the Fund or your application, please email the Welfare, Community and Diversity Officer, Nathan.wyatt@uea.ac.uk

What is the fund for?

Funding can be used to buy gender-affirming products such as binders, packers, breast forms, clothing and makeup.

Funding can also be used to pay for transport to medical and therapeutic appointments, but we are not able to provide funding for treatment or other medical procedures.

Eligible students can apply for up to £50 at a time. Please note, you will be asked to provide evidence of all costs you would like to claim for. You can only apply in advance of spending.

The Union has designated a total of £500 for this fund in academic year 2024/25.

Applications close on 30th of June 2025.

Your Privacy:

UEA Students’ Union takes the privacy of all students very seriously. We also recognise that some applicants may be worried about revealing their preferred gender to us.

Our promise to you-

We collect personal information so that we can check your student status, contact you about your application, and address you properly. We will never use the information you provide to identify or “out” you to university staff, other students or Union staff not involved in the administration of the Fund.

This is also a trust-based process based on self-declaration by the student, not investigation by the Union.

You can find a full privacy notice in the application form.

Who can apply:

To apply for the gender expression fund, you must:

Be a registered student at the University of East Anglia

Identify as transgender, non-binary, intersex, or gender diverse.

Not use the Fund to get money to contribute to fundraisers or give to others

Not be requesting items with excessive costs (e.g. custom products), unless explicitly necessary for reasons of sizing or access needs to be considered

Not be requesting funding for medical treatment (such as hormone therapy or surgical procedures) or to fund private counselling/therapy.

How to access the fund:

You can begin by submitting a response to this form here:

Gender Expression Fund Form

Your application will then be reviewed by a team of administrators overseen by the Welfare, Community and Diversity Officer, supported by SU career staff. The only time this may differ is if these people are not available, at which point another member of the Sabbatical Officer team, or the Head of Advice and Welfare may assist.

Once your application has been reviewed, you will be informed of the outcomes by email (normally within 2 weeks) and asked to provide payment details.

Once we have received your details, we will pay you via BACS (bank transfer) within 1-2 weeks

Why have we started this fund?

In October 2024, the Welfare, Community and Diversity Officer teamed up with our part-time LGBTQ+ officers to create a pot of money for our Trans students to access. After seeing the success of this scheme at other Students’ Unions, we knew that a similar scheme would work nicely at UEA. We set out the terms of the fund and what we wanted to achieve. In November 2024, a fund request was received by our Student Officer Committee from the Welfare and LGBTQ+ officers, requesting £500 for the fund. This request was granted in full.

In December 2024, a motion was brought to our Union Council mandating the current Welfare Officer to continue to lobby for funding for this scheme, from other the university or local charities. The motion also mandating future Welfare Officers (July 2025 onward) to protect the fund and source funding for this project.

The Gender Acceptance Fund is designed to help current and prospective trans and questioning students see the Student Union as a safe, supportive and welcoming environment to explore their gender identity and expression.