Follow-up: Pitt Trans Bathroom Policy Issue
I’m posting two more posts on this subject today. I want to get a list of URL’s up that talk about this issue, so there is a collection of information all in one place. That will be the next post. However, something has stuck with me today from the Advocate article that I read. It deals with the use of the Birth Certificate as the means to determine which bathroom is appropriate for a person. I wondered how often it is that a Trans person will go back and change their birth certificate- how common is that, and if they are going to change it, at what point in a transition is that most likely. My thinking is that in regards to older people, such as faculty or staff, that may not be as bad a solution, but for young students, the birth certificate makes no sense at all, because many/most of them may be at very early stages of their transition. So I reached out to a friend I respect so much, especially when it comes to Trans issues, Rayden Sorock, to get his viewpoints, and we had a good discussion. For the record, some Trans persons do change their birth certificate and it may be easier in some states than in others. This is required to change a person’s sex on their passport. For non-trans persons (the CIS community) there are so many details and hurdles that most people never even think of, and coming the grasp the complexity of being Trans and living Trans is an important pice to solving problems such as this bathroom policy at Pitt.
Rayden shared with me that a small group of Trans community leaders are pulling together a comprehensive policy that can be presented to Pitt for consideration. This is, if I understand it, a policy that has been used at a number of other Universities. I don’t have all the details, but I want to express that Trans voices are out there and ready to participate in the solution. This is essential for a real solution.
Tom,
Why do you dislike the Pitt Non-discrimination policy already in place. The Trustees approved it and the Chancellor signed in it 2008. As ADPC point out the current General Counsel’s edict violates that policy and the laws of the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. It also violates a contract made with any student who enrolled while the old policy was in effect. Further as a conspiracy to violate the rights of a particular group, the General Counsel’s action is a hate crime under federal law and a felony under Commonwealth Law. We will attempt to file criminal charges against the General Counsel, Chancellor and Provost on Monday. Why don’t you come with us and explain why Pitt should have just a little more time to break the law? That is treason, insurrection and sedition by definition.
The secret comprehensive policy that you folks keep talking about is beginning to remind of Richard Nixon’s secret plan to end the war in Vietnam. You may remember that started with doubling the bombing of Indochina and spreading the war to Cambodia and Laos.
No matter what plan is put forward, even if the trustees agree with it, it can be big footed by the Administration or General Counsel any time they please. They have just demonstrated that. I am sorry you hold the law in so little esteem and believe Pitt can and should break it with impunity. The idea that those of us you are transgendered need a special and elaborate policy to tell us that we have the same right to be free from law breaking as anyone else is demeaning and transphopic. Every three days someone, somewhere in the world is murdered simply for being transgendered. Fourteen are murdered in the U.S. alone. Fifty-one percent of transgendered Americans have attempted suicide. As I used to ask the supporters on Nixon’s secret plan, “how much blood do you want on your hands?”
Dr, Katherine Anne McCloskey
Here is Pitt’s nondiscrimination policy: http://www.cfo.pitt.edu/policies/policy/07/07-01-03.html. I am a big fan of this policy and I feel s if I played a minor role in it being all that it is, so I don’t dislike it at all. However, whiole it states Pitt’s intention, it dioes not provide the University with guidance as to how to meert this. The goal of adding a comprehensive trans policy is so that all units, departmewnts, and parts of the University have guidance as to how to actually meet the noindiscrimination policy. Thew two will work together to everyone’s benefit.
The administratiuoin is enthusiastically supportive of a comprehensive trans policyt and welcome having that brought to the University from the trans commiunity.
As you point out there are many and extreme hurdles trans persons face. A comprehensive plan brtought forth by leaders of the trans community here can go a long way towards making Pitt a more inclusive placew for students, staff, and faculty.