Id wrote, "I gather from having heard many other trans folk talk about the situation with women's colleges that they don't include trans women. I don't know if some have a policy in place about this or if it's simply never come up, for which there would probably be several reasons."
Many do have policies, not widely publicized, and not nearly as tasty a hook for a Sunday Globe article. Sorry to say, the same systems that see male-identified FTMs as a subset of "women" see female-identified MTFs as a subset of "men." (I specify male- and female- identified, since there are many who occupy the label FTM as 'not-women' rather than as 'man.') Some women's schools in Mass. (where Smith is located) require that transwomen have their birth certificates changed in order to be able to apply for school. People who know the arbitrary nature of documentation changes for transsexuals in the U.S. have an idea of the barrier that this presents, since any required SRS is most often an out of pocket expense...even if every transwoman wanted to have lower surgery.
It is a complex issue, but as I see it, an injustice lies in a common blindness or lack of advocacy on the part of most FTMs on these campuses in arguing for their sisters. There seems to be a taint of "male privilege" misused - that many of those who wish to be known by male pronouns and names, who might medically transition to live in society as males, do not cede women's space to those least able to access it, yet who are truly most in need of that access. As a longterm post-transition man of transsexual experience, who is a gay man (but het female-identified for the first few decades of life) - the way I think of it is that when I move apartments, I turn in the keys. So what would happen if a male-identified privileged young adult argued for inclusion of MTFs at hir college? Why, sie might just have to transfer, and that would be uncomfortable and inconvenient. (Again, my sternness is more directed at those FTMs who are male-ID'd, and not those who are not-women-ID'd. If that makes sense.)
All that said, I have heard of some deep stealth women of trans experience attending women's colleges, although that would imply so many personal history ducks in a row, at that age, that the mind boggles. As someone who is often in male-only spaces, sexual and otherwise (poking at a strand from further up the thread) - I sincerely hope they had friends to confide in when necessary. And yes - young transwomen ~do~ desire to attend women's colleges, especially as more youth are shaping a trans identity earlier, in supportive contexts, in ways that would allow them to successfully navigate a competitive college application process. I have seen close up how heartbroken and destabilized they are when they are told they are not allowed to attend classes at the very schools where female-born trans students give their seal of approval to the trans-friendliness ~they~ have found on campus. |
