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Original poster

Bizarre trans situation at Hilary Clinton's ex college

36 replies

flyingbuttress43 · 16/03/2023 12:27

Students at the female-only college attended by Hilary Clinton (Wellesley College) are at odds with staff after they voted to let transgender men attend the institution.

www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/03/15/womens-wellesley-college-accused-co-ed-accept-transgender-men/

(Sorry, quoting as I don't seem to be able to make a share token. Can anyone help?)

The students voted in favour of accepting applications from transgender men and non-binary, regardless of their "assigned" gender at birth.

But the non-binding vote has been resisted by college president Paula Johnson, who said their are no plans to change current policy.

So what is so bizarre? Only the fact that the women-only college rules that transmen i.e. women are not eligible but that transwomen i.e. men are eligible.

Ms Johnson said that the referendum would mean rewriting Wellesley's founding mission to education women, which the college had no plans to do.

"Although there is no plan to revisit the admissions policy, the college will continue to engage all students, including transgender male and non-binary students in the important work of building an inclusive academic community where everyone feels they belong."

Some students have been holding a sit-in at the administration building and their student newspaper's editorial board wrote that "we disapprove and entirely disagree" with the president.

Ms Johnson said the debate had become unhealthy and that there was enormous social pressure for students to support the referendum.

I've been personally boed at public gatherings where I've referred to Wellesley as a women's college, which it is," she said.

Except of course it no longer is, if it is accepting transwomen, and refusing transmen.

You couldn't make it up. Except you can apparently.

OP posts:
Beamur · 16/03/2023 13:07

Took me a few reads to get my head around that.
So the college allows self identity and freely admits men identifying as women and sees no conflict with their founding principles.
Students want to extend this to a definition that includes sex as well as gender, but the college is resisting.
I can see some twisted logic to this. If you restrict something to women (or men) only you have to decide how you define that term.
So - born women or identifying as women..
Students want both.
This is the same definition that Girl Guides have had to resolve. They too have plumped for identity but do still accept anyone born female too, albeit grudgingly. The line seeming to be 'this is for girls and if you're not a girl you're probably not interested in us'

ImAvingOops · 16/03/2023 13:01

No one has a fucking clue what anyone means anymore. Which illustrates nicely why biological female should be the only admissions to a women's college and why the word 'woman' is so bloody important!

Passerillage · 16/03/2023 12:57

You can't have it both ways.

If ran the college I admit I'd probably be doing this on purpose to rile the people who'd made me admit transwomen in the first place, but I am petty.

Clymene · 16/03/2023 12:44

Does it mean that the students want to allow women and trans identified people of both sexes? But the college only recognises gender identity, not sex?

It's so mad.

PriOn1 · 16/03/2023 12:43

Actually, I managed to read it and it is unclear whether the students want to stop male students attending. They want FtM transitioners to be included and also all “non-binary” people, male and female. So it may be that they want all people who claim they are trans or non-binary to be able to attend, regardless of their sex. It is utterly ironic, however, that the college is still insisting it’s a women’s college when they are allowing men who claim they are women access.

Greenfinch7 · 16/03/2023 12:43

Does it say anywhere that students only want biologically female people to be eligible? That seems very unlikely in the current climate. Probably students want to add transmen to the group that can apply.

MoltenLasagne · 16/03/2023 12:41

I cannot make head or tail of this situation. Is it that students want to accept transmen (I.e. female students identifying as men) but not transwomen (I.e. male students identifying as women) but the college doesn't? Or is it vice versa?

Gosh remember how much easier it used to be when words had accepted meanings....

Birdsweepsin · 16/03/2023 12:37

No one really knows what to do about this do they?

Can we re-programme the word "transwoman" to mean 'person, born female, who would now like to be given the advantages traditionally reserved for men'?

PriOn1 · 16/03/2023 12:37

That is fascinating. The students want to return to an all-women campus and it is the staff who are resisting!

It is the students who have to live with whichever cohort are allowed in. I wonder whether they are currently suffering from an excess of male students. I could imagine even a few would quickly make their presence felt.

Well done to those young women for making themselves heard. There must be a good reason for them to reject the status quo. I hope that the staff stop virtue signaling and start to listen properly.

GarethSouthgatesWaistcoat · 16/03/2023 12:33

I completely missed the part about transwomen being welcome 😮

Transmen sounds reasonable since they're biologically female 🤔
Although if they're 'men' I don't know why they'd want to be at a women's college, surely a recipe for dysphoria.

I think the article I read was confused, it centred on the college admitting 'transwomen' (by which they meant transmen, I think) and the debates and sit-ins it was causing. No mention of transmen.

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