Trans men at women's colleges
I'm a first-year at a women's college. Some of the students are trans men; however, as far as I can tell, there are no trans women. See, the policy is that if you're legally female, you can enroll. So, since most trans women are not legally female when they're around 17-19...
So, yeah, that policy is basically stupid and moronic and needs changing. However, to me, the presence of trans men seems more ambiguous. It's basically not a good thing, yes, but I've got a scenario where surely it's okay: a young woman lives in a very closed-minded family. When she was little, she wouldn't wear dresses for love or money, but her parents basically squelched any real nonconformity out of her. She also hasn't got much of a budget for college. She applies to a mix of coed and women's colleges, purely in the hope that she'll receive a generous scholarship somewhere, and gets a full scholarship to both Smith and Reed. She chooses to go to Smith. Now, she'd have to pay out the nose as a transfer student elsewhere, as transfer students are eligible for scholarships at only a small handful of institutions. Her parents would need to take out some huge loans - she couldn't, because banks are disinclined to loan to someone like her, a teenager who's never done anything that could affect her credit rating either way.
But by halfway through sophomore year, this student has realized that she would much rather be he. I don't think it's necessary to give you a whole narrative there. But our hypothetical student is 100% sure, and although he feels a little bad for exploiting a loophole, he can't possibly transfer to another school. How would he tell his parents? Like I said, they're very closed-minded. Maybe they'd be scared out of letting him continue at college. He'd be forced to jump through dozens upon dozens of financial hoops all on his own, in all likelihood. It's very, very difficult for a transfer student to get any kind of scholarship.
In short, a female-identifying person goes to a women's college, realize quickly that zie is a man, and cannot afford to continue his education anywhere else. Is it, then, excusable for him to continue on at Smith? Certain other communities say no, based mainly on the reasonable idea that it devalues trans identities. However, they also seem set on simultaneously policing a space currently inhabited by cis women and by the trans men members of [certain comm] want kicked out, and classifying cis women's belief that the space need not be policed as "whining", and so discussion got shut down, unless you're the mod team and get to have both the last words. I'm not about to try again at [certain comm]... So I thought maybe I'd ask you folks' opinion.
ETA: Aw, shit. If you're really interested in all this and want some info and opinions, just go have a look at transwmncollege. They defend the presence of trans men at women's colleges much better than I ever could. The comments here are particularly enlightening... I'll get me coat.
So, yeah, that policy is basically stupid and moronic and needs changing. However, to me, the presence of trans men seems more ambiguous. It's basically not a good thing, yes, but I've got a scenario where surely it's okay: a young woman lives in a very closed-minded family. When she was little, she wouldn't wear dresses for love or money, but her parents basically squelched any real nonconformity out of her. She also hasn't got much of a budget for college. She applies to a mix of coed and women's colleges, purely in the hope that she'll receive a generous scholarship somewhere, and gets a full scholarship to both Smith and Reed. She chooses to go to Smith. Now, she'd have to pay out the nose as a transfer student elsewhere, as transfer students are eligible for scholarships at only a small handful of institutions. Her parents would need to take out some huge loans - she couldn't, because banks are disinclined to loan to someone like her, a teenager who's never done anything that could affect her credit rating either way.
But by halfway through sophomore year, this student has realized that she would much rather be he. I don't think it's necessary to give you a whole narrative there. But our hypothetical student is 100% sure, and although he feels a little bad for exploiting a loophole, he can't possibly transfer to another school. How would he tell his parents? Like I said, they're very closed-minded. Maybe they'd be scared out of letting him continue at college. He'd be forced to jump through dozens upon dozens of financial hoops all on his own, in all likelihood. It's very, very difficult for a transfer student to get any kind of scholarship.
In short, a female-identifying person goes to a women's college, realize quickly that zie is a man, and cannot afford to continue his education anywhere else. Is it, then, excusable for him to continue on at Smith? Certain other communities say no, based mainly on the reasonable idea that it devalues trans identities. However, they also seem set on simultaneously policing a space currently inhabited by cis women and by the trans men members of [certain comm] want kicked out, and classifying cis women's belief that the space need not be policed as "whining", and so discussion got shut down, unless you're the mod team and get to have both the last words. I'm not about to try again at [certain comm]... So I thought maybe I'd ask you folks' opinion.
ETA: Aw, shit. If you're really interested in all this and want some info and opinions, just go have a look at transwmncollege. They defend the presence of trans men at women's colleges much better than I ever could. The comments here are particularly enlightening... I'll get me coat.