In yesterday's column by Turkana Laurence Lewis on Affirmative Action, I made a comment about what had just popped into my mind at the time:
There is no affirmative action for...
...transpeople, regardless of race.
In fact, we are all too often denied admission or kicked out of school or abused until we give up and leave.
I thought about making the relative links at the time, but I didn't really have the time. I was busy grading some quizzes that I rally have to have ready to give back on Monday.
So I'll make the links...both physically and intellectually...now.
Denied admission:
More than three dozen students at Smith College picketed the college's admissions office, hoping to influence a change in Smith's admissions policy regarding transgender women.
Smith does not accept students who are born male if their applications material identify that piece of information, even if they live as female.
An application from a transgender student is treated no differently from other applications: every application Smith receives is considered on a case-by-case basis. Like most women’s colleges, Smith expects that, to be eligible for review, a student’s application and supporting documentation (transcripts, recommendations, etc.) will reflect her status as a woman.
--Gender Identity and Expression Policy
Calliope Wong was denied admission to Smith for the 2013-2014 academic year because at the time in order to be legally identified as female according to Connecticut law (where she graduated high school) she had to be post surgery...which is almost impossible for a high school senior/pending college freshman.
The students want the college to accept as supporting material for an application a supplemental letter which explains that while an applicant's transcripts identifies the applicant as male, the student was living as and identified as a woman.
The college has agreed to disregard the gender box on FAFSA, the form required for all students as part of an application.
Students carried signs which shared the sentiments:
Trans Issues are Feminist Issues
and
Womanhood Does Not Reside in Documentation.
The students promise to continue demonstrations in the fall if the college does not respond.
Change.org petition is here.
Kicked out of school:
Domaine Javier is suing California Baptist University for expelling her in 2011. Javier was working towards a nursing degree when she appeared on the MTV reality show True Life and revealed herself to be transgender.
Some people have questioned why a transgender student would attend CBU in the first place.
Answer: The school is just blocks from Javier's family home and she received two scholarships to attend there...one academic and one for music.
I wasn’t expecting this at all. I went [to MTV] basically just to get something off my chest and to inspire people through my story.
--Javier
Javier is legally female according to the State of California and the federal government. But CBU accused her of fraud and expelled her. California's
Unruh Civil Rights Act protects individuals from discrimination by any business establishment on the basis of sex and other bases and explicitly states that protection on the basis of sex includes "pregnancy, childbirth, medical condition related to pregnancy or childbirth, gender, gender identity and gender expression."
The UCRA does not include a religious exemption. CBU is claiming that they did not expel Javier because she was transgender, but rather because she committed fraud on her admission application. Oh...and even though thy expect people to pay them for the education they obtain, they are not a business.
We’re dealing with adults who are entering into a pretty hefty financial transaction for the purpose of advancing their careers. CBU is about getting people an education in exchange for money.
--attorney Paul Southwick, pushing back against the argument that the university isn’t a business
There’s nothing in Christian doctrine that addresses gender identity. I don’t think Christians who object to transgender identity have given us a clear reason. I can’t find any evidence that there’s anything negative addressing transgender identity in the Bible.
--Dr. H. Adam Ackley, a gender and sexuality studies professor at the University of California (Irvine) and a board member at SafetyNet, an LGBT advocacy organization for students at Christian colleges
Ackley
agreed to resign from Azusa Pacific University after he began transition as a faculty member there.
Thought more about your question regarding why Christian universities claim transgender identity is unbiblical and remembered the only recurring argument as ‘God created gender’ in uncritical, decontextualized, mistranslated reference to Genesis 1.26-28 that God created a binary gendered pair of humans originally (also the anti-gay-marriage argument). However, in the original Hebrew it is quite clear that the original human (“ha’adam” – the creature made of earth or soil, which is what I took for my new male name when I chose to transition) is undivided into genders – one we might call transgender or intersex these days. The division into two genders happens AFTER God creates and calls this original human good (division into man / woman in chapter 2 verse 22). So it’s a bad argument and not one I take seriously.
--Ackley
Tellingly, the university hasn’t claimed any First Amendment right to discriminate, and I think it’s because they don’t have one. [What they are claiming is that] "when a transgender person like Domaine selects ‘female’ for her gender, but she was born a male, we think that’s fraud, and we can expel her for that reason."
That conclusion is based on stereotypical notions of sex and gender that the law no longer recognizes.
--Southwick
I am Catholic, and I believe that God doesn’t make mistakes and God doesn’t judge. I’m just really hoping for the best and hoping to be a nurse some day like I always dreamt of.
--Javier
Abused until we give up:
Cristy Valeur is a transgender woman. She is a student at Delta College in University Center, MI, which is between Saginaw and Bay City. Cristy recently testified before the Saginaw City Council which is considering protections for LGBT people.
Cristy came out to herself as female at the age of 6.
I was 6 years old when my second sister was born. I remember my mother telling me why I couldn't be a mommy when I grew up. And it broke my heart. I remember crying myself to sleep.
--Valeur
The first time she came out publicly was in high school, when she identified as bisexual.
I have been perceived as every letter in LGBT at some point in time or another. Valeur I find myself having a unique perspective on the community because of that.
--Valeur
She currently lives in Bay City and is majoring in psychology with a concentration in social work at Delta. After high school, she moved to Mississippi.
She was giving a friend's cousin a ride home after a night of partying and felt that she was struggling to drive safely, so she let her passenger drive. That turned out to be a mistake. The passenger sexually assaulted her.
The next morning she reported a rape to the local police. The moment they discovered she was transgender, their sympathy and understanding evaporated.
All of a sudden it was I was no longer a girl that got raped by a guy. I was a guy that could have stood up for himself.
--Valeur
No charges were ever filed against the perp.
When the guy found out she went to police, he threatened to kill her.
That was her last day in Mississippi. She moved back in with her sister in Michigan. And she attempted suicide soon after. She says she still struggles with being a victim of rape.
Other incidents in Mississippi included being forced out of her job at as a dealer at a casino when she began transition, and being harassed by her neighbors when they discovered that she was trans.
Some people will say, "But that's Mississippi!"
Because it happens everywhere. The reason I don't want to talk about some of the discrimination that happened here is because it will still affect me here. I don't want to rock the boat here. I don't want to destroy other peoples' worlds. I don't want to be hurt again and make myself a target. That's the big one. I don't want to make myself a target again.
--Valeur
I wanted to put a rational voice out there. As well as an emotional one. Especially since I'm trans. We don't get represented very often.
--Valeur
Opponents to ordinances like the one in Saginaw frequently say those ordinances are not needed because there is no evidence of discrimination against LGBT people where they live.
Just because you don't see discrimination happening or don't know about it doesn't mean it's not going on. It's embarrassing that we keep it a secret, but it's for our own protection. There is a huge fear factor out there.
--Valeur
Bay County leaders once considered a similar ordinance but eventually defeated it, opting to only protect against discrimination in county employment.