Some days Caiden Marcus' morning routine involves more than a shower and rubbing on deodorant.

Marcus, a 2006 MSU graduate, binds his chest, makes sure his hair is just right and his mannerisms are down pat before heading out the door. But some days he doesn't go through the effort.

Marcus is transgender, which is when a person identifies with a sex other than the one they were born with. The process, called passing, has become a normal part of his life.

"For me, (passing) means binding," he said. "Getting binding done well so it looks like I have a flat chest, clothes that fit me, how I get my hair cut. … You don't talk as much, and you try to lower your voice when you do. Those are the main things."

This practice was one of the harder processes Marcus took on after he realized he was transgender during his freshman year at MSU. He started coming out as transgender his sophomore year.

"At first, it's hard just because there's no real general rule," he said. "Like you have to change your face or how your body is, and it's really trial and error. It's a continuing process, but after a year or two, I had it down pretty well."

Marcus, who now injects himself with testosterone every week, said being transgender really hit him when he learned about it after attending an event through BRIGHT — the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender caucus for Brody Complex.

"I really learned the language for being trans and how I always felt," he said. "I've always known to some extent that something was different, but I didn't have a language for it until my freshman year."

Marcus said he experienced the most harassment when he first began coming out.

He said it was probably because he hadn't learned how to pass as well as he knows now.

"People would come up to me and be like, 'What are you — a boy or a girl?'" he said. "But that's become less and less frequent. I learned how to pass better. I'm still very paranoid when I'm in the bathroom."

Marcus explained that using a restroom identified for a sex that doesn't appear to coincide with the user's sex is a great point of contention, and bathrooms are a harassment hot spot for transgender individuals.

Installing gender-neutral bathrooms on campus is a major part of a campaign by members of Phi Tau Mu, a campus organization for female-to-male transgender students, and TransAction, a group for transgender students and allies.

The groups have been working toward adding gender identity to the university's anti-discrimination policy, which could make gender-neutral bathrooms more common on campus.

Transgender students and allies have been pushing to have gender identity recognized by the university for more than five years, said Phi Tau Mu co-founder Jordan Furrow. They were successful in 2003 when former MSU President M. Peter McPherson added it to the anti-harassment policy, but said adding it to the anti-discrimination policy could cause problems.

McPherson said in a memorandum that claims of gender identity harassment would be easier to recognize than claims of gender identity discrimination.

He said the term "gender identity" needed to be defined more clearly, and guidelines for the university should be more specific.

Lauren Beach, chairperson for the committee handling the gender identity case at MSU, said the group hopes to come up with a recommendation for the board concerning gender identity by September.

"This is an important issue, and we're taking it seriously," she said.

She said the committee hasn't written its report yet, and meetings to discuss the action are ongoing. The committee began meeting last December, she said.

Rachel Crandall, executive director of TransGender Michigan, said she has worked with groups at MSU in efforts to add gender identity to the anti-discrimination policy. She said protecting rights of transgender individuals is a struggle across the globe.

"We need to keep fighting," she said. "We need to keep working. Just because it wasn't achieved a couple of years ago doesn't mean that we can stop."

Marcus said the public should show consideration for the transgender community by recognizing who the individual is now, not who they used to be.

"The most important thing is to respect how people self identify," he said. "Use that pronoun, and do not obsess over their past. For example, 'You used to be a girl, so what was your girl name?' That's really frustrating.

"I'm Caiden, and that's who I am now — so focus on that."

Laura Misjak can be reached at misjakla@msu.edu.