Opening new doors

Where was the State News when this policy was enacted. The policy is almost a year old and they haven’t reported about it at all yet. Way to report on CURRENT events.

Uri was assigned a room in Brody Hall?? Where in Brody Hall do they have dorm rooms? … Must have missed that when I lived in Armstrong. This is one of the worst news stories I’ve read in a long time.

I don’t want my student living with a transgender student. It’s bad enough I have to pay the price of tuition and housing that I do. But then to be forced to take part in the Liberal mindset that everything is okay, and everything and anything goes, well I beg to differ. I don’t wish the transgender student harm, but physically you are male or female and I feel that you should be treated as such. And true why did it take so long to report this policy, a year? Why??

http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2007/03/policy_should_include

Recycled story! Granted this is just an editorial though… check the date.

Actually “Parent” most scholars today agree that gender as well as biological sex falls along a slippery slope or a continuum. Many cultures recognize more than two distinct sexes. Hopefully your student will be more open minded then yourself.

Dear ‘Parent’ and ‘Gross’, While I try to respect your sentiments, please, you are making the reactionary right look bad. You might do well to learn to read before you get on your moral outrage soapbox.

“Bilodeau said a student would not be placed in a situation where his or her safety or happiness could be at stake.

And if a student chooses to room with a member of the opposite biological sex, both roommates must agree they are comfortable with the arrangement, Goldblatt said.”

And for the record, just because someone told you that people ‘choose to be’ transgender, does not make them right. It is HARMFUL to treat a trans person ‘as their biological sex’ — I know its hard to step out of your silver-lined bubble, but maybe you will avoid coming across as such an idiot next time if you go through the pains about educating yourself around these complicated issues.

The more I read idiot, close-minded comments by people like Gross and Parent, the more depressed I become at being an alum of MSU. There so many reactionary, right wingers that seemingly crawled out from under a rock, you wonder how the University got the stellar rep it does. And when you see stupidity comping from a parent like Parent, it’s little wonder how the current screwed up crop of students got that way… With such a mentality constantly expressed, you wonder why these parents sent their kids here, or why such kids would even want to attend something called ‘a university.’ I thought such places were designed, in part, to OPEN the mind to the possibilities of other modes of thought and other lifestyles… People like Gross and Parent might as well have been home schooled. Actually, a University of Phoenix would be right up their alleys. There, they don’t have to interact with anybody else, just sit at home on their computer and learn… and also spare the rest of us all their childish, stupid prejudices.

Thank you for writing this article, State News. The world is worsened when newspapers start responding to attitudes of the people who have written above me. This is what the news is for, to educate and expose people to the happenings that they would much rather ignore or brush off as weird or gross. I rarely see people comment on stories being “old” and missing petty details when the topic is less controversial. Good for you State News, and good for you Uri. Out in a world full of ignorance. Don’t be silent!

Tolerance is not acceptance.

You can dress up all you want, and pretend all you want, but ultimately until you can change your chromosomes, you’re SOL.

Since when is not agreeing with someone’s point of view and lifestyle CHOICES reactionary??

Nobody cares that you are gay. Get over yourself. You are a woman and you should live with women in the dorms.

This isn’t about the ideology of liberals or conservatives. It’s about having compassion for another human being. Think about how hard it must have been on that transgendered student to realize they were different. How alienating it must have felt, and how much strength it took to accept themselves for who they are.
There are many different kinds of people in the world, and I think it’s important to have an open mind to accept that not everyone in the world will be like you or think like you do.

Parent – it must really suck to have such a strongly formulated opinion, and absolutely NOTHING that you can do about it. Imagine – YOUR student,involved in an institution that condones individuality!

And if you don’t mind, could you specify what you mean by “everything and anything goes”? Were you referring to a different article? Maybe you posted on the wrong thread – this thread is about the article above – referring to MSU’s transgender student housing policy…

You, mam, are truly a joke. It puts a smile on my face to realize that people like you are losing. Such a formulated opinion, yet you are still pouring $ into this institution. That makes my day.

I get that some people don’t understand transgenderism and transsexualism.
I don’t get why they need to attack transgender and transsexual people because of it.
I think some of the anti-trans commenters are probably actually talking to themselves here, but don’t get why. No one is asking any of you to be transgender or transsexual, so what is the deal? Why can’t you accept people for who they are, where they are, without an expectation to change? Or at least accept that they have the right to make their own choices, even if you would not make the same ones.
There are so many creative ways of living that people are finding, why must you bully people into ‘your way’ — if you like what is tried and true, then fine, but others don’t. Others can’t.
There are so many good people in the world who at least are willing to learn and listen. Who are willing to participate in creative problem-solving so we can all live in a better world. Those who can’t are going to be left behind.

Definition from wikipedia (I know, I know)
Transgender is the state of one’s “gender identity” (self-identification as woman, man, or neither) not matching one’s “assigned sex” (identification by others as male or female based on physical/genetic sex). “Transgender” does not imply any specific form of sexual orientation; transgender people may identify as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, polysexual, or asexual. The precise definition for transgender remains in flux, but includes:

* “Of, relating to, or designating a person whose identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional notions of male or female gender roles, but combines or moves between these.”¹ * “People who were assigned a sex, usually at birth and based on their genitals, but who feel that this is a false or incomplete description of themselves.”² * “Non-identification with, or non-presentation as, the sex (and assumed gender) one was assigned at birth.”³

I think this is a pretty interesting and definitely a complex issue. But transgender is essentially a psychological state of the person in question. Simply because someone thinks they are a female or a male, does not make them one scientifically. Nor does it mean that someone has to accept or reject their opinion of themselves based on this self-perceived gender-identity. Personally, if I think someone is a good person – I will treat them as such. If I think someone is a deranged person, I will equally treat them as such. I’m not discriminating against someone who is transracial (some may refer to them as wiggers) that thinks they are white when they’re black, or black when they’re white. I’ll like them if they’re a good person, not what color their skin is. This does not however change someone’s scientific makeup. If a transracial person self-identified themselves as black, but biologically was immune to sickle-cell anemia, would they still be allowed to be affiliated with the NAACP or qualify for minority scholarships. If this is the case, then being ‘open-minded’ to transgender issues, should also allow for transracial people to not be limited by their birth race. This doesn’t mean they have to be accepted as one or the other. It’s psychological, not physiological…

I’ll never have those five minutes back, the ones I just wasted reading this article. LBGT students want to “fit-in”, yet they unknowingly ostracize themselves by whining about their living arrangements. The SN did the LBGT community a disservice be writing this article. It didn’t educate as much as it did irritate.

I’m not trying to be insensitive or anything, but what if I don’t want to live with a woman who became a man, or is living as a man? Do I have a say in it? How can a woman who decided she doesn’t feel like a woman decide that she wants to live with me and bring me into the complicated world of a transgendered person? I don’t care if people are gay, straight, transgendered, into trees, rocks, whatever it may be. But I don’t want to unwillingly have to be a part of it.

WOW!
We seem to have some pretty close minded people making comments on here. I just want it to be said that people are people. People have feelings, emotions, desires, and goals. So what if they are not the same as you feelings, emotions, desires, and goals. America was founded on freedom and the pursuit of happiness. Not pursuit of what you think makes me happy.

Someone that feels to label themselves as transgendered has enough on their plate. They do not need your views as well. Chances are that if you took away the label and really got to know people, you would enjoy your self.

I do not care what your views are or how you think politically. Stop thinking with your head and start thinking with your heart. The world needs love and joy not judgment!

Good for you for doing what you needed to do to get through MSU! Good luck and GO STATE!!

What a great article! There is still a lot of work to be done, though. Judging from some of the nasty comments on this post, it seems some of the public will need to let go of their false sense of superiority. They don’t see the truth that transgenderism, while rare, is a natural part of the human experience. They remind me of those people who were reluctant to share their drinking fountains, restrooms, and restaurants with blacks during the civil rights movement.

Anyway, great article! Those who are interested in learning more might enjoy this blog:

http://www.genderblind.org

So let me get this straight… if I identify myself as a “woman” then you are advocating that I can live in a girls dorm and use the women’s restroom?

“X Chromo”?

If you’d actually paid attention in your seventh-grade biology class, you’d know that it’s the presence or absence of the Y chromosome that determines sex; females are XX, males are XY.

Uri is the nicest most helpful person i have met so far at MSU. He has made an effort to make all the freshman living on his floor make the hard adjustment to college life and he is always available to talk about any problems or issues. The fact that Uri is a transgender individual is great. He had enough courage within himself to realize that the gender he was born is not the gender he idtentifies with or believes himself to be. Why live a lie? Why live life unhappy when you can take the steps to personal acceptance and happiness? AND who is anyone else to discourage him from doing so. It is 2009 and like it or not most of the youth today is growing up with more open mindedness and tolerance for peoples’ individual choices and beliefs. Uri is doing a great thing by providing help to other kids who find themselves in similar situations. Just because you are not transgender, lesbian, bi, gay, whatever, does not mean you have the right to pass rude judgement on others who are.
This article is not about forcing students to live with transgender people, it is simply giving transgender kids the opportunity (if agreed upon by their roommates) to live with the gender they identify with most. If its not something you want, then you don’t have to go along with it. But there are many kids out there who will benefit from this policy. GOOD JOB URI!!!

Being trans is a medical condition. The transgender individual may choose to alter their bodies to treat the condition.

http://www.innewsweekly.com/innews/?class_code=Ne&article_code=5603

Also, here is what someone (I read her blog at http://aebrain.blogspot.com) posted recently on another comments page to an article:

Some facts that may help others decide whether Transsexuality is Insanity, a lifestyle choice, or something else.

Seminar S10 at the American Psychiatric Association Annual meeting in May:

S10. The Neurobiological Evidence for Transgenderism
1. Brain Gender Identity Sidney W. Ecker, M.D.
2. Transsexuality as an Intersex Condition Milton Diamond, Ph.D.

From the Full Bench of the Australian Family Court, as far back as 2003:

At paragraph (252): ‘The traditional analysis that they are “psychologically” transsexual does not explain how this state came about. For example, there seems to be no suggestion in the evidence that their psychological state can be explained by reference to circumstances of their upbringing. In that sense, the brain sex theory does not seem to be competing with other explanations, but rather is providing a possible explanation of what is otherwise inexplicable’.

At paragraph (253): ‘In other words (as I understand it) the brain of an individual may in some sense be male, for example, though the rest of the person’s body is female’.

At paragraph (268): ‘It seems quite wrong to think of these people as merely wishing or preferring to be of the opposite sex, or having the opinion that they are’.

—-
Testimony by a medical expert on the subject:

Q. Dr. Cole, does the fact that a condition is listed in the DSM
mean that it necessarily has a purely mental or
psychological cause?
A. Absolutely not. It’s listed in the DSM because it
has to do with the mind, with the brain, with
emotional suffering. I mean, you also have learning
disabilities in there.
You have, you know, people who have sexual
problems, a man with erection problems, a woman
with orgasm problems, that’s listed in the DSM, but
it has nothing to do with somebody being unstable.
Q. So the fact that gender identity disorder is listed in
the DSM, does that tell us anything one way or the
other about whether the condition has a
physiological or biological cause?
A. No, it doesn’t. It’s very controversial even within
the Benjamin Association to have it listed in the
DSM. There are many people who argue it should
be moved over to a medical kind of diagnosis as
opposed to a psychiatric diagnosis.

I’m not trying to be insensitive or anything, but what if I don’t want to live with a woman who became a man, or is living as a man?

This policy is all about making everyone comfortable. If you were uncomfortable, you wouldn’t have to be his roommate. I used to know a white supremacist who was uncomfortable with his “colored” roommate, and yes, the dorm administration found him somewhere else to live.

Although honestly, I think it’d be far more uncomfortable for the women in the women’s dorm to be living with him. Transmen aren’t drag kings. Once they’re on hormones, they go through a male-typical puberty and develop all of the secondary sexual characteristics (facial hair, voice lowering, muscle growth) typical of males. They look like men because they are men. I dated one once, and trust me, you wouldn’t ever, ever have suspected him of being born female.

An important story, State News. Thanks for publishing it.

I wonder how the more crude commenters above would react if the story was about a white student not wanting to live with a black student. They probably wouldn’t let their bigotry be so apparent. Live and let live, folks.

Although i agree with the policy, comparing this situation to a white student not wanting to live with a black student is retarded. That would be incredibly different.