Queer & Trans* Liberation Includes the Eradication of Anti-Black Racism & Police Violence ~ This Struggle is Our Struggle!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 1, 2014

Contact: jen self, Publications and Communications Chair, [email protected]

The Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals stands in solidarity with our members, communities, and all communities who are deeply saddened and disappointed by the decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown, Jr. This decision to not indict Officer Darren Wilson, as well as the actions and opinions that led up to this decision, speaks to the structural racism that is embedded in our judicial system. The Consortium remains steadfast in our stance against police brutality, the excessive use of force, and the militarization of police forces, specifically as it affects Black communities and other communities of color.

As articulated beautifully by a student leader from a university in the Northeastern Region, “The struggle for queer liberation includes Black bodies, imprisoned bodies, and those who are constantly targeted by police violence. This struggle is our struggle.”

LGBTQ Allied Organizations Call for National Advocacy & Charges Dropped for LGBTQ Survivors of Violence

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 30, 2014

We, the undersigned allied lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) organizations are deeply concerned by the national trend of prosecuting survivors of anti-LGBTQ hate violence for defending themselves.  Currently Eisha Love, a young African American transgender woman, who was violently attacked by a group of people in a transphobic hate violence incident in her own neighborhood, is facing first degree attempted murder charges for defending herself from this attack. Eisha was the only person arrested. Eisha is currently being held by the Cook County department of Corrections in Chicago. 

Mills College & Mount Holyoke College Break the Glass Gender Binary by Admitting Trans Women!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 8, 2014

Contact: jen self, Publications and Communications Chair, [email protected]

New York, NY: The Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals wishes to hail the decisions of Mills College and Mount Holyoke College the first of the 119 “single-sex” campuses in the U.S. to admit trans* women. While Mills College’s policy explicitly opens admission to trans* women and allows for the continued enrollment of trans* men, the policy does not open the door to the admission of trans* men who have legally changed their gender markers to “M.” Mount Holyoke College pushed the boundaries of gender a bit further by creating a policy that allows for the admission of any trans* person. According to Mitch Kellaway of the Advocate, The only people unable to apply and be admitted to Mount Holyoke, under the new policy, are “cisgender men — those biologically born male [who] identify as men.”

Consortium to George Fox University ~ Support & Affirm all gender identities 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 1, 2014

Contact: Jen Self, Publications & Communication Chair, [email protected]

George Fox University, a small Quaker college in Oregon, has recently made the decision to prevent a student from being housed in a way that affirms his gender identity. In July, the university clarified that their sex-segregated housing policy is based on anatomical sex rather than on gender identity. George Fox has also sought, and received, a religious-based exemption to the Title IX guidelines that would otherwise require the college to respect this student’s gender identity. The Consortium is concerned about two main dimensions of this case.

First, physical sex is an insufficient measure upon which to make housing decisions. While some transgender individuals do undergo gender confirmation surgery in order to align their bodies with their gender identities, for many trans* people surgery is prohibitively expensive, medically unwise, or otherwise undesirable. Requiring a young transgender person to undergo surgery before they are prepared to do so could be harmful to that person, and is a practice specifically condemned by the World Health Organization. Moreover, defining housing under a strict interpretation of genital status ignores the existence of intersex people, who often find themselves left out of normative definitions of sex. While there are many factors that go into making a safe and educational housing environment, genital characteristics should be the least of these considerations.