Trans men at women's colleges

[lullabee_lj]

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

Comments

[maevele]

Its one of the things where i don't think it should be held against the trans man, but that it is exceptionally fucked up on an institutional level, to allow trans men at a women's college, but not trans women. The schools policy invalidates the identity of both the trans men it allows and the trans women it does not.

[elsolylaluna]

Yes, this. Exactly.

Although, I can absolutely imagine some nightmare scenarios (think a trans version of Soul Man) where straight guys try to pass as trans women just to get on campus.

[lullabee_lj]

Well, stop imagining those scenarios!

Honestly, if he's going to live as a trans woman just to look at pussy, that's his funeral. By November, he'll get sick of shaving his legs and will want to go home. He can then raise money for a transfer by sitting in a dunk tank and letting all the legitimate trans women dunk him. Then all the cis women. Then the admissions staff. Then...

And there are co-ed schools. Honestly, I'm sure he'd just find out that aside from the occasional streaker at oh-dark-thirty, there's not much in the way of naked women about.

Just... not that old saw, please...

[fall_of_sophia]

Although, I can absolutely imagine some nightmare scenarios (think a trans version of Soul Man) where straight guys try to pass as trans women just to get on campus.

Except that is a harmful, fictional nightmare scenario that gets repeated during "MEN IN THE WOMEN'S RESTROOM!" moral panic over gender identity legal protections, and has never actually happened.

[dreams_of_all]

I don't know about Smith in particular, but I do know that at least one friend found that it was far, far cheaper to go to a private out-of-state school than the in-state public one, because of the scholarships available. And certainly, I wouldn't have been able to go to my current school if not for scholarship money from the school itself. It's $44,000 a year, more or less, and there is no way that I could afford that much--but the actual cost has worked out to around $4,000/year with government loans, including room and board.

[rocza]

One of the many times I'm grateful my undergrad state school is also an excellent school; inexpensive tuition and a top 25 research university education.

(That said, my sister went to one of the Seven Sisters; my family is in no way the typical stereotype of a class-privileged family, but the school had very good aid packages for students who weren't on the richkid scale, but still had parents that made too much money for federal financial aid to be viable.)

[lullabee_lj]

Well, yeah, but... if someone starts arguing with me about something I didn't think would get discussed, I'll argue back.

And, well, of course. I'm seriously considering doing something about that at my not-Smith women's college, but... it doesn't need discussing, so why get into it here?

And, yeah, that's why Hypothetical Student has a full scholarship. But, still. Do you really want to ask that a teenage trans man do all kinds of bending over backwards just because he just discovered his gender identity? Bending over backwards that equally privileged cis women don't have to do? So college costs more for him than for cis kids?

Edited because I had to type and run.

[rocza]

It's very, very difficult for a transfer student to get any kind of scholarship.
That obviously depends on the student and the school. I know a lot of people who were transfer students and ended up with plenty of scholarships and grants (myself included, actually).

I don't support the idea of gender-segregated colleges, so can't/won't comment on the rest.

[eatenbykraken]

that shitstorm was epic, although I agree that the discussion didn't really belong in that post.

I think barring trans women is unreservedly fucked up on every level, end of discussion - but I think the presence of trans men is complicated. women's colleges have a long history of being progressive w.r.t. gender where other places do not. it therefore makes a lot of sense that they would be the best, most supportive, safest places for young people trying to transition. (I feel like maybe at this point in time/history/whatever, they could be more useful if their mission was re-envisioned being about gender than about women. (Then again, I don't understand why anyone would choose a women's college anyway, so my view on that are probably invalid.) )

So in short: yes, let trans men stay because sisterhood is dumb and safety is not. But work fast to fix policies barring trans women, because the degree of fucked-up-and-offensive operative there is staggering.

[antony_james_k]

I would point to whether or not the college is gender-segregated or sex-segregated.

[lullabee_lj]

Ugh. Yeah, at the moment, it's a bit sex-segregated. If no one is working to stop that already, I'll see if I can start some kind of student organization to do so. Something like that. But, honestly, I didn't come here to discuss that, because how can we not end up paying lip service to something we all know? Of course it's bad. It needs changing. Let's not start patting ourselves on the back for knowing that.

The problem is, from where I'm standing, essentially that even the reasonable goal of running a gender-segregated institution doesn't trump charging students fairly. Being trans should not have an additional cost associated with it, going to college shouldn't force you to come out to your parents before you're comfortable doing so...