Morehouse College Opens Its Doors To Trans Masculine Students

Morehouse College in Atlanta since 1867 has been the only all male college dedicated to the education of African American men.  It has a long distinguished list of alumni that include the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Spike Lee,  Samuel L Jackson, ATL Mayor Maynard Jackson, former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson,  Julian Bond, and NFL referee Jerome Boger just to name a few.

Unfortunately, Morehouse College was on the Princeton Review's dubious list of Top 20 transphobic and homophobic campuses, and had been on it since the 1990's.  Morehouse alums have also been vocal about wanting action taken to remove their school from that list.

I have long complained about the fact that HBCU's need to get busy making their campuses more welcoming to Black TBLGQ students or lose them to PWA's who are way ahead of them in doing so.

Looks like HBCU's are finally waking up to the reality that Black TBLGQ people exist and aren't going away or back in the closet. 

Today the Morehouse College Board of Trustees approved a policy that would open its doors to trans masculine students beginning with the Fall 2020 semester.

“In a rapidly changing world that includes a better understanding of gender identity, we’re proud to expand our admissions policy to consider trans men who want to be part of an institution that has produced some of greatest leaders in social justice, politics, business and the arts for more than 150 years,” Terrance Dixon, the college’s vice president of Enrollment Management, said in a statement. 

 “The ratification of this policy affirms the College’s commitment to develop men with disciplined minds who will lead lives of leadership and service.” 

The currently enrolled 2200 students currently matriculating at 'The House' aren't affected by the new Gender Identity Admissions and Matriculation Policy.

Morehouse College President David Thomas took over in January 2018, and stated that he wanted to implement a formal policy covering transgender students.   The policy was developed after 15 months of community engagement that included faculty, staff, students and alumni as the result of a task force created by President Thomas.

Under the new policy, Morehouse's admissions doors are open to all persons who self identify as men, including trans masculine students. Trans women and people who identify as women are not eligible for admission to Morehouse.

If a person transitioned to female while enrolled at Morehouse, they are no longer eligible to study at The House.  Exemption to this rule must be granted by a three person panel appointed by Morehouse's president after an appeal by the affected student.

This policy is long overdue, and is welcome news for the trans community, Morehouse alums and our allies.  It's also a big step in recognizing the fact that Black trans people are Black people, and some of our Black trans masculine folks dream of matriculating at Morehouse College.

They made that dream a reality by approving this policy.

Spelman Will Finally Admit Trans Women!

In the wake of what happened to Calliope Wong at Smith College when she attempted to enroll at that school, I asked the question back in 2013 on the blog when Spelman would admit trans women, and if they did, how would they handle the situation Smith fumbled badly at the time if a qualified Black trans feminine identified student wished to enroll there?

Now I have a definitive answer to that question.  Spelman would enroll that trans feminine student, and they will start doing so during the fall semester of the 2018-19 school year.

Spelman is the elite women's college in HBCU academia, and I believed back in 2013 it would inevitably come to the decision to open their doors to trans women who in the words of President Mary Schmidt Campbell, 'consistently live and self-identify as women, regardless of their gender assignment at birth.'

So what that means is if my trans nieces Trinity and Ellie wish to consider attending Spelman, they have the option when it's time to choose a college and have the grades to do so, can add that school to their collegiate wish list.

According to a letter from President Campbell released to Spelman students, Spelman has had a task force composed of students, faculty, staff, trustees and alumnae have been discussing the issue since last semester.

As for those of you asking how this policy impacts trans men, as a women's college dedicated to serving high-achieving Black women,  it doesn't not admit folks who consistently live and self identify as male as Spelman students.

The exception to this is if a trans masculine person transitions AFTER they have been accepted and enrolled at Spelman as a female student.  They will be allowed to continue pursuing their degree on campus and graduate from Spelman.

President Campbell in the letter also called for an implementation committee to be empaneled to consider how the new admissions policy will affect the Spelman campus community.

As you probably guessed, the transphobic Hateraid already started flowing from the ignorant corners of the Black gossip blogosphere, but the decision is being met elsewhere with generally positive commentary.

And so happy that Spelman has joined Bennett College, the other HBCU dedicated to educating Black women,  in opening their doors to qualified trans feminine students.

Moni's 2016 NCAA Men's B-Ball Bracket

I am a serious college basketball fan, and love March Madness except for replays of a certain painful to watch 1983 NCAA championship game that get nauseatingly run every year

Since 2007 I'd been putting my NCAA bracket on the blog for you TransGriot readers to peruse.  But last year my travel schedule was so jam packed full of events in March that I didn't have time to sit down long enough to post my 2015 NCAA Men's NCAA tournament bracket.   

But I did make a prediction that turned out to be way off, and the Duke alums I know made sure to remind me of it.  Oh well, that's the way the ball bounces sometimes.  It also broke my three year streak of correctly predicting the eventual men's champ.

I'm now 4-4 in the picking the NCAA men's champs, and here's my previous NCAA men's brackets for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014

But it's a new year as the Final Four will be played in my hometown this year at NRG Stadium.  But before we get to those national semifinal and national championship games on April 2 and April 4, we have several weeks of games in which the 68 teams will be whittled down to the Final Four teams that will play for the NCAA men's title.

And  now, my 2016 NCAA Men's Bracket

First Four Games
Wichita State, Florida Gulf Coast, Michigan, Southern

South Regional
First Round
Kansas, Connecticut, Maryland, California, Arizona, Miami (FL), Temple, Villanova  

Second Round
Kansas, Maryland, Arizona, Villanova

Sweet 16
Kansas, Villanova

South Champ
Kansas

West Regional
First Round
Oregon, Cincinnati, Baylor, Duke, Texas, Texas A&M, VCU, Oklahoma

Second Round
Oregon, Duke, Texas A&M, Oklahoma

Sweet 16
Oregon, Oklahoma

West Champ
Oregon

East Regional
First Round
North Carolina, USC, Indiana, Kentucky, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Xavier

Second Round
North Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia, Xavier

Sweet 16
Kentucky, West Virginia

East Champion
Kentucky

Midwest Regional
First Round
Virginia, Butler, Purdue, Iowa State, Seton hall, Utah, Syracuse, Michigan State

Second Round
Virginia, Iowa State, Utah, Michigan State

Sweet 16
Virginia, Michigan State

Midwest Champ
Michigan State

Final Four
Kansas, Oregon, Kentucky, Michigan State

Championship Game
Kansas, Michigan State

2016 NCAA Men's Champ
Kansas

First Ever HCC-Southeast TDOR Tonight

Usually I'm either out of town for somebody's TDOR, but this year it didn't happen for me.  

That development was probably fortuitous for my hometown because we had four different TDOR events in the Houston area for people to attend or participate in, and I was tapped for participation in two of them.

Later tonight at 5:30 PM CST on the HCC-Southeast campus I'll be delivering a keynote speech for this first ever one sponsored by the Black Student Association, Women and Gender Studies Program, Counseling Center, and Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

It will take place Thursday evening from 5:30-7 PM in the Angela Morales Building - Lecture Hall on the HCC-Southeast campus, and will also feature Lou Weaver along with Dr. Ilija Immanuel Gallego 

The HCC-Southeast campus is just off I-45 at 6815 Rustic St.., and hope to see you there.