MSU may add gender identity to its policy

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Tweet MSU is one of five remaining Big Ten schools that doesn't include gender identity in its anti-discrimination policy — but maybe not for long.

A proposal to add gender identity to the policy will be discussed at Tuesday's Faculty Council meeting. If approved by both the Faculty and Academic councils, the proposed change will move to the MSU Board of Trustees.

Without this proposed addition to the policy, the university risks the loss of funding and recruitment efforts, members of the second Ad Hoc Gender Identity Committee said.

Since December 2003, gender identity has been part of the university's anti-harassment policy, but not its anti-discrimination policy.

"Michigan State is already falling a little behind the curve," microbiology senior Lauren Beach said. "The majority of the Big Ten schools already have gender identity in their anti-discrimination policy."

Six of the 11 universities in the Big Ten include gender identity in their anti-discrimination policies.

Beach was co-chair of the second Ad Hoc Gender Identity Committee — a group of three students, three faculty members and three advisers charged by Academic Council in November 2003 to research and answer questions raised by former MSU President M. Peter McPherson regarding the implications of adding gender identity to the policy.

One campus office directly affected is the Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender Resource Center. Currently, the center cannot apply for certain funding, Beach said, because of the absence of gender identity within the policy.

Committee member Michael Craw said the reason was often because of requirements from private organizations.

"There are an increasing number of private associations who expect gender identity to be a part of an anti-discrimination policy in order for that organization to be eligible for grants from the foundation," said Craw, an assistant professor in James Madison College.

The proposal partially addresses the issue, he said.

"There are also concerns about facilities and restrooms and dorm assignments; there are concerns about student records and name changes," Craw said.

"The anti-discrimination policy change doesn't affect those areas directly, and so there are other ways we think, as a community, that the university could address those concerns independently of considering an anti-discrimination policy change."

Some suggestions, he said, were to add more single-stall unisex bathrooms on campus and for a way for students to note a preferred name on class rosters.

"Some of the recommendations we make can be quite helpful," he said. "Not only for transgender (people), but for other people on campus."

Another reason the second committee was formed was to consider events and developments that have occurred since 2003 in the way of gender identity issues.

"The two events that have changed things on this is that more and more universities to which MSU benchmarks have been adding gender identity to their policies in one way or another," Craw said. "And the second thing is that the legal landscape has changed on gender identity and discrimination."

In 2004, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Smith v. City of Salem, Ohio, that discrimination based on gender identity constituted as gender discrimination, which is prohibited under the 14th Amendment, Craw said.

"Transgender then became officially a grounds on which one could be discriminated against on the basis of sexual discrimination," said George Allen, committee member and College of Nursing professor.

Craw said the proposed revision to the policy would put many transgender students, faculty and staff at ease.

"They live right now in uncertainty of what may happen with their job because of their gender identity status. This would remove some of that uncertainty for them," he said. "It's a valuable signal that their contribution to the university is welcome."

Committee members agreed that overall, the addition of gender identity to the anti-discrimination policy would make MSU a more inclusive, welcoming university.

"MSU is seen as a very inclusive place to be. It always has been and we hope it always will be," Allen said. "So that's the major reason for wanting to have this — because that's the kind of place we want MSU to be."

Sarah Harbison can be reached at harbiso9@msu.edu.

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