Congrats Madame PTA President!

One of the ultimate goals for us in Trans World is to just be seen as the amazing men, women and people we are and just get on with living our lives.

Nikki Araguz Loyd since her precedent setting trans marriage case win in the Araguz v Delgado case has been doing just that.   She's been focused on helping promote her husband Will's art career, being mom to two amazing kids, being that sisterfriend to all of us blessed to have her in our lives, and some human rights and trans advocacy work in different areas of importance to her.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the camera love her?

Through the Trans National Alliance, she's helping trans folks here in the area and state of Texas get their name and gender marker changes done.   The TNA is having another fundraiser at Hamburger Mary's Houston on June 6.

Now Nikki has made history again in another arena.   Her daughter is in middle school, and as you probably guessed, she has been a fierce advocate for her and the children of the school her daughter attends in that Trump loving suburb she lives in.

The other parents at the school have taken note of her all around awesomeness and fearlessness to speak truth to power be it the principal or the school board, and yesterday elected her the president of the school's PTA for the upcoming 2017-18 school year.

She is probably the first out trans PTA president that I've been made aware of, and probably the first in the Lone Star State and possibly the nation.

As I've said, don't mess with Texas trans women.  We handle our business and get the job done.

Congratulations Madame PTA president!    May you have s successful and productive term as you take on this exciting challenge in your fabulous life.

ConGRADulations Trans Class of 2017

It's not easy getting an education while trans, and our haters are trying to make it harder for you to do so. You deserve the utmost love and respect for making the investment in yourselves to do so.
-TransGriot, May 3, 2016

Me attending a graduation potluck celebration in Emily Chambers' UH dorm room last night reminded me that I haven't written my annual post congratulating the Trans Class of 2017 and showing y'all some love like I have done for trans classes in previous years.

Congratulations indeed on getting your 'ejumacations' while trans, because the right wing transphobic haters are trying to make it harder for you to do so from grade school to graduate school.

But the bottom line is that you persevered.  You are making the jump from elementary to middle school;.  From middle school to high school.  From high school to college.  From college undergrad to graduate school or to that off campus real world life.

Each jump to the next level of your educational journey has its challenges,.  But if you can successfully navigate a gender transition, school is easy compared to that.  

By doing so, you are committing a revolutionary and evolutionary act at the same time.  You are being revolutionary by being your out and proud selves in those academic spaces and excelling in them.  You are becoming indispensable parts of your various campuses.  many of you have evolved become leaders because you have had to fight to defend your very humanity and right to exist from ignorant transphobes.

And most importantly, you are stepping across those stages at either the main or lavender graduation ceremonies that will happen across the country with diplomas (or diploma covers) in hand.

You also did so while also dealing with the challenges of being a trans masculine, trans feminine or gender non conforming person in a classroom or collegiate setting, and that makes us trans elders and hopefully your families, be they blood or chosen, smile.

Congratulations Trans Class of 2017!    Looking forward to see what happens in your lives over the next few years.

  .

Trans Girl Wins Her Fight With A DoDEA Superintendent

Sometimes the worst bullies that transgender kids face are not their fellow classmates, but school administrators and legislators. We had an example of that surface recently from Germany.

Blue is the trans daughter of an Air Force active duty father serving at Ramstein Air Base.  The 11 year old fifth grader came out as trans during the summer and has been accepted by her parents, fellow students and administrators at Ramstein Intermediate School, one of the four schools on the base administered by the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA)

The DoDEA operates 191 schools in 12 nations, seven states, Guam and Puerto Rico and serves more than 82,000 children of active duty military and DOD civilian families .

She had been given approval to use the bathroom and locker facilities that match her gender presentation by the principal of the school, but that decision was overruled by Liz Dunham, the superintendent of the Bavaria district of the DoDEA.

Dunham told Blue's parents she would either have to use the boys bathroom or a single stall one several flights of floors below her classroom.   When Blue's parents pointed out that there were four other trans students on the base , Dunham according to Blue's mother Jess reportedly didn't care.

Well, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter did care.   So did Ashley Broadway-Mack, the president of the American Military Partner Association who blasted Dunham's trans oppressive attitude.

"All students, regardless of their gender identity, deserve to be able to go to school in an environment free from discrimination and harassment. The Department of Defense school system is currently observing October as National Bullying Prevention Month, yet this superintendent has unacceptably chosen to single out and discriminate against a student because of her gender identity. Transgender youth already face high rates of marginalization, bullying, and harassment, and we urge the Director of the Department of Defense Education Activity, Mr. Thomas Brady, to immediately step in and correct this unconscionable decision."

And never underestimate or piss off a Mama Bear.

Dunham's decision was overruled, and Blue and all trans students in DoDEA schools will be able to use the bathrooms and facilities that match their gender presentation.

That's supposed to happen tomorrow.   We'll see if it does for Blue and all trans students in those schools and across the DoDEA system.

Pearland ISD Oppressing A Trans Child

I was not happy to hear that while I was handling my Chautauqua business, the Pearland ISD has decided to be unapologetic trans human rights oppressors and ignore the guidelines contained in the DOE/DOJ 'Dear Colleague Letter.

Kimberly Shappley's five year old trans daughter Kai starts school on August 22, and Shappley appeared at the PISD school board meeting on Tuesday to appeal once again to PISD trustees.

The subject wasn't on their board meeting agenda, but Shappley was trying once again to get the district in Houston's booming southern suburbs to wake up and start treating transgender kids not as people to gleefully demonize but with the dignity and respect they deserve just like every other kid that is in the boundaries of their school district.

Looks like unfortunately at first glance that plea fell on deaf ears, and they are following the lead of their transphobic superintendent Dr. James Kelly.

Kelly back in May made a transphobic comment criticizing the Dear Colleague letter that alarmed Shappley, the Houston area trans community and allies living in PISD and the Houston area.  

Shappley has been told by PISD officials that when Kai begins kindergarten in a few weeks, that she will have to either use the boys bathroom or one in the nurses office.  It is a policy that runs counter to the DOE/DOJ Dear Colleague letter, that encourages districts to allow trans students to use the bathrooms that match their outward gender presentation .

It also violates Kai's civil and human rights.

Shappley said as she addressed the PISD board on Tuesday that the PISD policies create an intolerant atmosphere that promotes bullying and could put her daughter's life at risk.

"You are increasing the risk of suicide among these children.  "I am the mom of a little girl who I want to live." Shappley said to the board.  "I'm fighting for her happiness.  I'm fighting for her freedom."




Since the topic wasn't on the PISD board meeting agenda, the trustees declined to address Shappley's comments either at Tuesday's board meeting or in the media.

But it's increasingly clear that the Pearland ISD, despite their rhetoric that they care about the welfare of all their students, doesn't care about the happiness, lives, freedom and welfare of its transgender students.

They are hell bent on being trans human rights oppressors and unfortunately are willing to continue violating Title VII and Title IX at the behest of bad advice from our indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.   PISD probably won't care about the human rights of Kai and other trans kids in their district until they lose a federal human rights lawsuit.

And that's sad because PISD should be embracing Kai and doing what they can to educate her.  Instead they are taking the path of gleefully oppressing Kai and greasing the skids for her cisgender classmates and adults who should know better at her elementary school to bully her.

Bryanna Needs Some Support

My Baltimore based sis Bryanna Jenkins has been accepted to DePaul University's College of Law in Chicago and will be headed to Chicago in August to join the Class of 2019!

I'm proud of her for getting a step closer to her dream of becoming an attorney, and Bryanna wants to concentrate on the areas of public interest and civil rights law.

The 27 year old Jenkins is an award winning advocate for our community who was recently honored with a 2016 BTAC Rising Stars Award.

While she was awarded a $60K renewable scholarship and has applied for countless others, as those of us who have pursued higher education know, scholarships don't cover all the costs of your legal education.

She'll also be resigning her position at her job in Baltimore in August to make that move to Chitown and get her legal education started.

Bryanna started a GoFundMe page two months ago with a goal of raising $5000 to help her defray some of her moving expenses and get settled in Chicago.

However, I've been distressed to see that at the time I'm compiling this post, unfortunately she has raised just $805 toward that goal, and the clock is inexorably ticking toward the August moment that she will have to move from Baltimore to Chicago to get settled for her first year of law school at DePaul.

She'll also need for her dorm room appliances, bedding, and old law school textbooks while she's getting her legal education in the Windy City.

Can we show our trans sister some love and contribute to her fund?  Chicago based trans fam, can y'all also do what y'all can to help Bryanna out when she arrives in your backyard?

If you can drop $5, $10, $20 or whatever you can spare on her GoFundMe, every little bit helps to get our sis closer to that $5000 goal.  You can also consider whatever you donate to Bryanna's GoFundMe it an investment in the education of a future legal advocate for our community, and the more trans attorneys we have, the better.

Thank you for considering helping our trans sister out.

Department Of Education Issues Decree Protecting Transgender Students

It's been a great week for the American trans community thanks to the attorney general's declaration that they and the Obama Administration will do everything possible to protect trans Americans going forward, and we have even more evidence of this morning.

The Department of Education this morning is issuing a directive in a letter signed by officials from the Department of Education and the Department of Justice's Vanita Gupta  that states all public schools across the nation must be allowed to use restrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity.

The letter will also state that under federal law a school's obligation to ensure nondiscrimination on the basis of sex requires schools to provide transgender students equal access to educational programs and activities even in circumstances in which other students, parents or community members raise objections or concerns..

'As is consistently recognized in civil rights cases, the desire to accommodate others discomfort cannot justify  a policy that singles out and disadvantages a particular class of students.'

“No student should ever have to go through the experience of feeling unwelcome at school or on a college campus,” said Secretary of Education  John B. King Jr.in a statement. “We must ensure that our young people know that whoever they are or wherever they come from, they have the opportunity to get a great education in an environment free from discrimination, harassment and violence.”

the decree does not have the force of law, but schools that continue to discriminate against transgender students may face loss of federal funding.

Dawn Wilson Scholarship Established By U of L

Happy to see my Louisville homegirl and Louisville Human Relations Commissioner Dawn Wilson was honored October 1 by the University of Louisville during its 2015 Pride Week festivities with the establishment of a scholarship in her name.

"Tonight , I was honored to not only to have a scholarship named in my honor at the University of Louisville but I also met the dynamic Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement,." said Wilson in a statement on her FV page  "This new scholarship will offer LGBTQ students of color opportunities to pursue their collegiate dreams"

Patrisse Cullors was the keynote speaker for UL Pride Week, and her keynote speech also happened on Thursday night.

Dawn Wilson is one of the pioneering trans peeps y'all need to get to know.  She took part in the Phyllis Frye run lobby day in Washington DC in 1994, founded the Louisville based Bluegrass Belles trans group, helped pass trans inclusive human rights ordinances in Louisville and her hometown of Lexington in 1998, was the first African-American trans person to win the IFGE Trinity Award in 2000, helped organize the Transsistahs-Transbrothas trans POC conventions in 2005-2006 in Louisville and has been an integral part of the Louisville and Kentucky human rights community for over two decades. 

And yeah, she's one of my mentors.

The Wilson scholarship is for LGBTQI college bound students of color who wish to attend college on the University of Louisville campus, and may be the first of its kind offered on a college campus located in the South.,  

JCPS Trans Inclusive Policy Passes First Stage Vote

When I left Louisville in May 2010 four days after my birthday to come back home, I had unfinished human rights business I was unhappy to leave undone.

That unfinished business was getting a nondiscrimination policy that included gender identity language for the Jefferson County Public Schools. 

In 2007 I was part of a coalition effort to get a comprehensive LGBT inclusive policy passed for JCPS..  Trans people were cut out of that policy in committee because of then Supt. Berman's lack of human rights vision.   I was highly pissed off about it at the time and almost dropped our of the effort at that point because I was upset about the trans community getting throw under the political bus again. 

After calming down and promises being made to me and the Louisville trans community that the Fairness led coalition would come back and fight for trans inclusion in the JCPS policy at another time, .I changed my mind and fought hard to get the JCPS trans free policy passed.. 

The trans free policy subsequently passed after three long and contentious public hearings on a 4-3 vote.

On Monday I was alerted by Dawn Wilson that the trans inclusion policy n JCPS I was fighting for passed its first stage JCPS board vote with a 5-2 margin.to take it to the second stage

Linda Duncan, just as in 2007  tried to use all the tools in her oppression handbook, but failed to slow down this policy what should have been adopted 8 years ago had Berman and the board listened to me and the coalition then..   Duncan along with board member Chuck Haddaway opposed it.

Rounds two and three are coming up, and I expect Frank Simon, Jerry Stephenson and the rest of the merry band of suburban haters will be loading up the buses to stick their nose in JCPS human rights business soon.

Malala Opens School On Her 18th Birthday

Do you remember what you did on your 18th birthday?   On mine I was prepping for my test to get my Texas driver's license and preparing for my last month of high school.

So what did Malala Yousafzai do on her 18th birthday which was yesterday?   She was in Lebanon opening a school for Syrian refugee girls living there in the Bekaa Valley on Lebanon's eastern border with Syria. 

Because of the ongoing fighting in Syria, 4 million people have fled to neighboring countries to escape the conflict.   Lebanon is home to 1.2 million of them, with around 500,000 school age children among them, but only a fifth of them are in formal education.

"I decided to be in Lebanon because I believe that the voices of the Syrian refugees need to be heard and they have been ignored for so long," Malala told Reuters in a schoolroom decorated with drawings of butterflies.

Hard to believe that it was in 2012 when a Taliban gunman boarded a school bus Yousafzai was traveling on in her native Pakistan and shot her for advocating in a clandestine blog the rights of girls to have an education.    She became the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.

After surviving the attack, she has moved to England with her family and become a powerful international advocate for children's education.

The school that was opened in Lebanon was paid for by the Malala Fund, a non-profit organization that invests in local education projects, and can accommodate up to 200 girls ages 14-18.

"Today on my first day as an adult, on behalf of the world's children, I demand of leaders we must invest in books instead of bullets," Malala said in a speech.

Would be nice if they did so Malala, especially in my own country.

Happy 18th birthday, Malala.   May you celebrate many more of them in your so far amazing life.

All The Seven Sisters Will Admit Trans Feminine Students

The Seven Sisters are a group of historical elite women's collegiate institutions in the Northeast US founded between 1837-1889 whose primary was to not only give female students a liberal arts education equivalent to men, but provide opportunities for women in academia. 

The Seven Sisters received that nickname in 1927 and are Barnard College,in New York City; Bryn Mawr College, in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA; Radcliffe College in Cambridge, MA; Smith College in Northampton, MA; Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY; and Wellesley College in Wellesley, NY.

Radcliffe and Vassar were once women only colleges, but became coed institutions.  The remaining Seven Sisters institutions had debate about the issue, but decided to remain women's colleges.

They were founded  in an era in which their mission was to give women a college education, and they have been exceedingly successful at that mission. 

The Seven Sisters count as their alumni such notable people as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Emily Dickinson, Secretary of State Madeline K. Albright, Diane Sawyer, Glenda Hatchett, Debra Martin Chase,Yolanda King, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Joan Rivers, Cynthia Nixon, Ntozake Shange, Molly Ivins, Gloria Steinem and Katharine Hepburn along with thousands of other alums around the world that include several friends of mine..

But in the late 20th and early 21st century, the question of how to accommodate transgender students has arisen. The  definition of womanhood has evolved, but the admissions policies of the Seven Sisters haven't.   Those hypocritical policies allowed trans men to matriculate on those campuses if they started their transitions after being admitted as female bodied people but barred trans feminine students from even enrolling.

When Calliope Wong was denied admission at Smith, that brought new scrutiny to those Smith policies and triggered reexamination of those policies to ensure they admitted all women who wished to attend.

Mount Holyoke because the first of the Seven Sisters to admit trans feminine students in 2014, and now Barnard College starting this fall will do so.

“As expected, a wide range of passionate and deeply held beliefs were discussed and debated,” Barnard’s president, Debora Spar, and the chair of its board of trustees, Jolyne Caruso-FitzGerald, wrote in a joint June 4 letter to the Barnard community. “But on two main points, the responses were compelling and clear.

“There was no question that Barnard must reaffirm its mission as a college for women. And there was little debate that trans women should be eligible for admission to Barnard.”

Barnard will consider applications from anyone who now “consistently identifies as a woman,” but not those who have transitioned to become men, or those whose gender identity is fluid.

It will be interesting to see what happens now that trans feminine students can matriculate at Barnard and the other Seven Sisters campuses.

Another Day, Another Conservative Anti-Trans Lie Debunked

As many of us in Trans World are aware of, our right wing opponents have been busy scaring their people with the debunked bathroom predator lies in a desperate attempt to stop the passage of trans inclusive non-discrimination policies. 

They have taken those attacks to another reprehensible level by attacking trans kids, who as the US Department of  Education has pointed out, transgender students are protected under Title IX.

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the U.S. Department of Education today issued official guidance which makes clear that transgender students are protected from discrimination under Title IX. Title IX is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded education programs and activities. Specifically, the guidance states that "Title IX's sex discrimination prohibition extends to claims of discrimination based on gender identity or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity and OCR accepts such complaints for investigation." [GLSEN, 4/29/15]

Media Matters decided to ask 17 large school districts covering over 600,000 students nationally if the right wing scenario they drone on about cisgender kids misrepresenting themselves as trans to gain access to opposite gender facilities is actually occurring.

And as you probably guessed, the conservalie isn't true.  These 17 large school districts stated there not only have been ZERO incidents of the type conservafools have been frothing at the mouth about.




So not surprisingly, the conservative lie claiming that protecting transgender students in school settings results in confusion and inappropriate behavior is demonstrably false.  It also corroborates what was discovered last year in the evisceration of the trans bathroom predator lie.
There's that pesky truth rearing its liberal biased head again.

So the next time your conservafool FOX noise watching uncle or aunt ties the bring up this lie, hit them with this avalanche of truth.

Getting Your Education While Trans Is A Revolutionary Act

It's May, and in addition to it being prom season, we also have people walking across stages across the country to receive their diplomas.

The topic is on my mind because I'm about to deliver a keynote speech on the UT-Austin campus in a few hours for their lavender graduation ceremony, and witnessed a trans feminine friend of mine get her degree from Prairie View Saturday.

I love being on a college campus whether it is a ginormous one like the UT-Austin one is or as small as the HCC-Southeast one that I've had the honor to do numerous events and panel discussions.

The common thread with both is those campuses are in the important business of educating our next generation of citizens and future leaders

And some of the citizens being educated on our college campuses in Texas and around the country are transgender ones who either transitioned in their teens or on those campuses.

Trans people go through hell and if they manage to get their high school and collegiate diplomas, they have beaten the odds that see 71% of them drop out before finishing high school.

If they managed to beat those odds and graduate, then its getting through college while trans, which can be a feat in itself in addition to just dealing with collegiate classwork.

And a trans person getting their education while trans is a revolutionary act.

Fairfax Co. VA School Board Adds Gender Identity To Non Discrimination Policy

The Fairfax County School District is the largest in Virginia and the tenth largest in the nation, and Thursday night had a vote adding gender identity to their nondiscrimination policy on the agenda.

The haters had something on their agenda too, and it was busing in out of town haters to stir up anti-trans animus in a desperate attempt to derail doing the right thing for its trans and gender variant students, teachers and staff.

The contentious meeting took place in front of a room packed with opponents to the proposed policy change that were polite to the ten speakers allowed to comment pro and con on Policy 1450, but cut loose to rudely interrupt board members who spoke in favor of the change as they unleashed every lie from their anti-trans fear and smear playbook.

The transphobes were so out of control that five were removed from the meeting room, others were threatened with removal, and Board Chair Tamara Denarek Kaufax threatened to clear the room if they didn't cease and desist with the nekulturny behavior.

After a failed attempt by the two board opponents of Policy 1450 to delay the vote until October, the Fairfax School Board voted 10-1 with one abstention to pass it as the opponents shouted insults at the board and policy supporters and stormed out of the room.

Ryan McElveen, the Fairfax School Board member who introduced the update to Policy 1450, proclaimed, “Our board will be remembered not for postponing, not for delaying civil rights but for protecting all of our employees and all of our children.”

A statement from Chair Kaufax said that the policy will ensure everyone in the district is treated “with dignity and respect.”

And that's all transpeople and trans students want.  Policies that protect their human rights so they can focus on getting their education, and if they are staff or teachers, do their jobs to the best of their ability..

That's obviously something the professional trans haters forgot in their zeal to foment hatred of transpeople for their paymasters.

Japan's Ministry Of Education Urges Schools To Do More For Trans Students

While some school districts in the United States no thanks to conservafools are moving to oppress trans students, other nations are going in the opposite direction in their education systems.

The Japanese Ministry of Education on April 30 issued a notice to local school boards imploring them to do more for transgender students to reduce their drop out rates.

Many Japanese schools already allow trans students to dress in the uniforms that conform to their expressed gender identity and use the locker rooms and bathrooms of their choice from elementary to the high school level.

The notice not only encourages all schools to do so,but also encourages schools to take steps to accommodate gay and lesbian students.

n a 2012 document, the education ministry urged schools to care for transgender students but stopped short setting out specific measures. Moreover, no mention of sexual minorities was made.
In June 2014, the ministry revealed that schools nationwide had recognized 606 students as transgender, but noted the actual number was probably much higher as LGBTI students often have difficulty coming out.
- See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/japan-schools-told-let-trans-students-wear-uniform-use-bathroom-choice010515#sthash.agaVSKjW.dpuf

Trans students, because of the pressure to conform in Japanese society, drop out of school,  The  Ministry of Education expressed concerns about that, and in 2012 put out a notice encouraging school districts to care for transgender students, but stopped short of recommending specific measures to do so.

In June 2014 the ministry noted that schools had recognized 606 students nationwide as transgender, but surmised that the number of trans students was probably much higher.because of the difficulty of TBLGI students to come out.

Our school districts could learn a lesson from Japan's education system and do the same thing.   They will learn, as Japan has, that if you give trans kids the opportunity to be themselves, they will stay in school, get their education, and thrive personally and academically.

D.W. Just Needs To Pee In Peace

Another day, another transphobe tripping because a transperson is living their life.

Meet 13 year old DW Trantham.   Because the Office Of Civil rights has informed school districts that they must provide access to the bathroom of the trans students' choice,  and DW is obviously trans feminine, two parents at South Junior High in Boise pulled their kids out of the school.

Gee, that bigotry sounds familiar.



And here's DW's and her family's response to their transphobic ignorance




The bottom line is that transpeople need to pee, poop and wash our hands when we're done.  We are facing more danger from you haters than you are from us, and no, sending trans masculine and trans feminine people to bathrooms that don't match our gender presentation doesn't solve the problem, it exacerbates it.

All  DW and other transpeople want to do is pee in peace.and have you cis people stop demonizing us for it.

AISD Meeting To Add Gender ID To Nondiscrimination Policy

The Houston, Dallas and Forth Worth ISD's have done this already, and now Austin will have an opportunity to do this at their board meeting tonight at7 PM.

Thanks to Paige Schilt, I was alerted to the fact that AISD is pondering adding gender identity to the nondiscrimination policy  .  While this should be a no brainer decision for Items 14.3 and 14.5, you can bet there will be some haters in the AISD house spreading lies to try to stop it, or delay the decision so they can gather the hate troops from out of town..

If you can do so and support AISD adding gender identity to their policy, now is your time to speak and be heard.   The board needs facts and your stories to base their vote on, not lies and disinformation.

The meeting was last night, and I'm trying to ascertain if AISD became the fourth district in the Lone Star State to protect its trans students and employees.

Hoping we had people from the AUSTEX area signing up to speak during Citizens Communication. The policy for Citizens Communication can be found at http://www.austinisd.org/board/meetings.

AISD is the fifth largest school district in the state, and it would send another powerful message to the rest of the ISD's waffling or ignoring this critical issue.

AISD headquarters is located on 1111 W. 6th Street, so if you feel that Austin should be on that short list of school districts that protect their trans students and employees, you may wish to help pack the room and ensure the right thing is done.

TransGriot Update:  The AISD board voted unanimously last night to make the fifth largest school district in the state the fourth one in Texas to add gender identity to their nondiscrimination policy for students and employees.   

Now we'll see if other Centex  ISD's follow their lead.

Bryn Mawr Students And Alums Craft Trans Inclusion Petition

Following the lead of Oakland's Mills College, Mount Holyoke College became the first Seven Sisters one to change their admissions policies to openly welcome transfeminine and gender variant applicants to their campus.

I had the pleasure of speaking on Bryn Mawr's campus in 2009 and urged them at that time to start working toward coming up with trans inclusive policies.  

If some Bryn Mawr students and alums get their wish, Bryn Mawr will be the next Seven Sisters college to include trans students on their campus.   They have penned an open letter and started a Change.org petition that as of this writing has amassed 1275 signatures that they hope will expeditiously jump start the process.

From the open letter accompanying the petition: 

Bryn Mawr’s current approach to handling trans student applicants is ineffective and insufficient. As long as Bryn Mawr continues to exclude trans and nonbinary students, it continues to neglect its essential educational mission. Bryn Mawr has a long history as an institution that offers educational opportunities to students who face discrimination because of their gender. The time has come to expand Bryn Mawr's safe, supportive community to fully include trans students and other gender minorities. This fall, Bryn Mawr faces a great choice: return to our historical mission of helping students break through the gender-based limits imposed on their education, or stand still and watch as others make change. 

The open letter also requested the following six things occur at Bryn Mawr:

1. Bryn Mawr to commit to adopting a trans-inclusive admissions policy by October 15th, 2014--one month before the Early Decision I application deadline for transfers and the class of 2019;

2. Gender inclusive restroom signage to be implemented no later than January 20, 2015, which is the first day of second semester classes;

3. A revision to the College's statement of nondiscrimination to include gender, gender identity, and gender presentation as protected classes;

4. Bryn Mawr to follow the students’ example and use gender-inclusive language in all College documents and signage, including but not limited to: the College website; marketing, recruitment, fundraising materials, and Alumnae Association materials;

5. The development and implementation of accessible, simple, and thorough procedures for students to change their preferred names and pronouns on various platforms used by the College, including but not limited to: Moodle, PeopleSoft, transcripts, diplomas, medical records, and other university records and documents;

6. A demonstrated dedication to further providing and supporting continuing education and training for the entire campus, focusing on the involvement of faculty and staff, and ensuring that the voices of current students and trans women are prioritized.

***

It will be interesting to watch and see if Bryn Mawr's administration takes this seriously and it becomes the next Seven Sisters institution to welcome trans and gender variant students to its lovely suburban Philadelphia area campus, or another Seven Sisters campus beats it to that distinction.

In either case, the trans community and our allies will be watching and waiting along with the parents of trans feminine kids rapidly approaching college age.

Mt Holyoke College Is Officially Trans Friendly

Mills College on September 1 became the first women's college to officially enact policies welcoming transfeminine students to enroll on their campus, and I know a transfeminine Mills College alum and longtime TransGriot reader who is exceedingly happy about that development. 

I had the pleasure of being on the Bryn Mawr campus a few years ago for a speaking engagement, and said to one of the deans at dinner before I departed for Louisville it was a matter of time when, not if you were going to see transfeminine students seeking to enroll and become students at traditional women's colleges. 

I pointed out that with transkids transitioning as early as age 4, today's transkids will become tomorrow's transteens looking for a college to attend.  I pointed out if the Seven Sisters colleges wanted to tap into that pool of college students, earn their loyalty and their parents tuition money, they better deal with the reality that transfeminine women exist and may possibly wish to attend a women's college.  If they didn't want to or refused to do th work necessary to attract them, those trans feminine students would attend other schools that are willing to do so.

I suggested Seven Sisters colleges like Bryn Mawr work on including gender identity in their non-discrimination statements and crafting trans friendly policies to make that inevitable day as seamless as possible instead of having those policies forced on them via court decisions they will lose..

Smith College has gained the righteous ire of transpeople for the jacked of treatment of Calliope Wong and other transfeminine applicants as they have hypocritically allowed transmasculine students who transitioned after they started school on that campus to complete their degrees.

One of the Seven Sisters colleges has decided to follow the lead of Mills College and clarify their policy on admittance and enrollment of trans students 

This is a welcomed and much needed development, and it will be interesting to see now that a Seven Sisters college has done so, will the others like Smith, who have been hostile to transfeminine students enrolling, finally do so.  

Rice University Makes Princeton Review List of LGBT Friendly Colleges

As a proud UH Cougar, hating Rice University when we play them in any sport is Job One. 

But there's no shade involved when it comes to discussing this remarkable accomplishment by our brothers and sisters on that century old campus.

In the recent 2105 update by the Princeton Review of the 20 most friendly/unfriendly LGBT campuses in the country, H-town's Rice University cracked the Top 20 and made the 'Most Friendly LGBT Campus' list 

Rice was the only Texas school on the 'Most Friendly LGBT Campus' list at number 20, with Stanford University topping it this year.  And yeah, I question Smith College's #4 ranking when they are and have been hostile to the enrollment of transfeminine students. 

In case you're wondering who made the LGBT unfriendly list, Baylor and Texas A&M made it on the 20 most unfriendly LGBT schools list for the second consecutive year. 

I'm happy there are no HBCU's on that Top 20 LGBT unfriendly list, but disappointed none have made the Top 20 friendly list either.  

Time to get busy changing that perception HBCU's.  Black LGBT students exist, and failure to deal with that reality will cost you in the long term.

The Princeton Review, not affiliated with the more famous Ivy League university, since 1992 has published an annual review of 379 colleges based on student surveys in 62 categories. 

The annual survey asked 130,000 students at 379 top colleges to rate their schools on dozens of topics and report on their experiences at them. Students were asked 80 questions about their school and themselves during the 2013-14 and/or previous two school years. An average of 343 students per school were surveyed. 

“Our purpose is not to crown one college ‘best’ overall or to rank these distinctive schools 1 to 379 on any single topic,” said Princeton Review senior vice president Robert Franek. “We present our 62 ranking lists to give applicants the broader base of campus feedback to choose the college that’s best for them.”

So yes, this is a BFD for Rice and megacongratulations to them for cracking the Top 20 on the 'Most Friendly LGBT Schools' list.  

It's not only something for you Rice Owls to pop your collars about, but gives Rice LGBT alums like Mayor Annise Parker and us TBLG Houstonians something else to brag about concerning our hometown in our national community circles. 

It's also giving us another reason to fight hard to ensure the HERO is a permanent fixture in our Houston Code of Ordinances so that Houston gets the benefits of the future LGBT kids drawn to Rice to get that quality college education on an LGBT friendly campus.

6th Annual TTNS Hits The Road Next Month

One of my favorite events to attend since I'm moved back home and haven't missed is the Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit.

The second TTNS summit at Rice University was the first in state and in town event I attended mere weeks after my May 2010 return to Houston, and I haven't missed one since. 

This 6th annual edition of the TTNS is going to be a historic and interesting one because for the first time it ventures out of its Houston area backyard and hits the Lone Star roads as founder Josephine Tittsworth intended it to do.  

So whats the Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit?  

The TTNS is a two day event that invites interested parties in higher education and interested advocates to discuss and come up with strategies and best practices in regards to codifying inclusion of "gender identity and expression" into institutional policy. 

The TTNS summit serves as a way to facilitate that policy and procedural inclusion.  It does so via discussion of divergent and respective strategies in regard to overcoming the inevitable barriers that always arise when proposing policies that will expand education opportunities for transgender students and the human rights for all.

The 2014 edition of the TTNS will take place at the LBJ Student Center on the campus of Texas State University August 8-9.  

Our keynote speakers for this year will be Dr. Gage E. Paine, Vice President for Student Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin and Daniel Williams, Field Organizer and Legislative Specialist for Equality Texas.

In addition to the keynotes, the TTNS will have two days worth of seminars covering various topics,  chances to network with other people doing this work and hopefully the TTNS chocolate break.

For the second straight year yours truly will be doing more than just chronicling the TTNS happenings, I'll also be teaching a seminar. 

What subject?   You'll have to roll to San Marcos and join us to find out.

But you still have time to do precisely that.