Today, I had a meeting with a senior member of the Pitt Administration concerning what’s been happening or not happening in the effort to have a fair, meaningful, and workable policy regarding a number of issues surrounding trans students, staff, and faculty.  It was a very productive meeting, and I’m excited to be able to write and share details here on my blog. More important than my meeting however, are some of the next steps that will be happening. I wrote the other day, that some Pittsburgh trans leaders had met and had a comprehensive policy to present to Pitt. Pitt administration is extremely open to this, and I am looking forward to connecting these leaders to the process so that their input plays a meaningful role in the development and implementation of a good policy. I think there is a lot of misinformation out there concerning what is and isn’t the current state of things in regards to trans policies. A comment on my blog:

While you are busy finding a “win-win”, trans students and staff have to pee. What would you advise?

The reality is that students, staff, and faculty can pee today in the same restrooms they have always been peeing in. Nothing has changed really when it comes down to what people can and can not do.

While you don’t expect equality to come at the flip of a switch, staff was happy to create inequality with exactly just such a flip of a switch.

This is factually inaccurate on a number of accounts. 1) Staff have not created any inequality; 2) “Happy” would not be an emotion that belongs connected to anything that has happened; and 3) nothing happened quickly as if there had been a light switch thrown.

I’m going to spend time and try and write as descriptive a post as I can about my meeting. I’ll say nothing more right now, except that it is true that today, Pitt doesn’t have a good comprehensive policy regarding a wide assortment of trans issues. They have added “gender identity” to their non-discrimination policy, and they are working through the usual channels to write and then adopt a real and good policy . Life will be better for everyone, once that process is completed, and then, Pitt will have a policy consistent with it’s stated intentions as expressed in their non-discrimination policy. So the progress continues.

And yes- I’m working for a win-win.