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Friday, August 01, 2014 12:06 PM

Second, we are concerned that exemptions to Title IX guidelines weaken the power of this law. Title IX protections have helped many LGBTQ high school and college students successfully challenge harassment, discrimination, and inequitable treatment. The Department of Education has been very clear that Title IX protects transgender people. Selectively allowing certain institutions to withdraw from these protections will lead to a negative climate for LGBTQ people. And now the George Fox Title IX exemption appears to have influenced at least two other colleges, who have now been granted permission to expel a student or fire an employee simply for being trans*.

While George Fox may have made a decision in the case of this particular student, we urge all institutions of higher education to consider ways to be supportive of transgender students. For guidance on this, please see our document Suggested Best Practices for Supporting Trans* Students. We believe that all students should be treated with equity and respect. Towards that end, we support and celebrate the work of Safety Net, an organization devoted to supporting LGBTQA people at religiously-affiliated colleges. LGBTQA people of faith deserve to be able to pursue educations that support their spiritual convictions, gender identities, and sexual orientations. We encourage all colleges and universities to join us in working to protect the rights of LGBTQ students, staff, and faculty.

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Shared Vision and Mission Statement

To critically transform higher education environments so that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students, faculty, administrators, staff, and alumni have equity in every respect.

Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals

280 Madison Avenue Ste. 912 - New York, NY 10016-0801

www.lgbtcampus.org