Raising Transgender Awareness

Transgender students at Yale are concerned that the school is not focusing enough time and energy into providing “gender-neutral housing,” according to Anthony Paletta on mindingthecampus.com.

School spokesmen explained that their efforts are being hampered by the residential housing layout on campus. But “Yale’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, pointing to what they say is a disturbingly low number of openly transgender students on campus, are pushing the University to do more to make Yale feel welcoming to transgender students.

“Yale is currently one of only two Ivy League schools not to offer its undergraduates gender-neutral housing, and unless that changes, LGBT community members say, the University will get stuck in a self-perpetuating cycle that will make it difficult to attract transgender students.”

However, the Yale Daily News reported that “applicants still find the school appealing because of its active queer population and renowned Women’s Gender and Sexuality program.”

The Yale Co-op does its part by sponsoring an annual “Trans Week” for transgender students, but this doesn’t appear to satisfy the student protesters, especially those for whom “gendered housing continues ‘amplifying oppression.’”

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Deborah Lambert writes the Squeaky Chalk column for Accuracy in Academia.

Deborah Lambert