<p>Apparently, in Massachusetts schools now, any student may declare what his or her sex is, regardless of whether it is the biological opposite of what s/he was born as. They have the right to decide, and if a boy says, "Hey, I'm a girl!" the school must honor that declaration and address "her" as such, with all the proper gender references.</p>
<p>Any lawyers here? See if you can decode this Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education document:</p>
<p>Wow, what a misleading headline to a very real issue of transgender identity.</p>
<p>First, disclaimer- I did not read the 13pg legal doc above…</p>
<p>I guess I’m a big “so what” in this until you get to transcripts and formal documents going to colleges. When they apply quite often girls have the edge (and scholarships) in STEM, while boys might be given the edge at smaller LACs. At that point are the LORs, GC reports, etc, reflecting preference or biology? Is this up to what each university will allow (if self identification is the direction we’re headed)?</p>
<p>I’m making ZERO judgements, just raising questions.</p>
<p>Can males who declare themselves to be female apply to all women’s colleges? This opens up a lot of interesting issues.</p>
<p>Will this extend to sports teams too?</p>
<p>I am very doubtful that people would declare themselves to be the opposite sex unless they have an actual identity issue, or an actual mental health issue. I don’t think there will be a huge rush of people announcing that they are a different sex.</p>
<p>Smart dancer - Smith just rejected a transgender applicant as they found this person to be male. I can’t link, but google “Smith College” and “Calliope Wong” and you will find the story.</p>
<p>I do not envy the women’s colleges in dealing with this issue. (my D is at one) I get that if a student enters as female and transitions to male during the time at school, it’s mean-spirited to kick them out, but at the same time, I don’t think a student now identifying as male should be hosting prospies or interviewing afterwards.</p>
<p>This reminds me of an issue that MOWC brought up - men running in races for women. They generally do it for the prizes and they usually have a physical advantage. The races allow it as who wants to defend against a lawsuit.</p>
<p>Really, really misleading headline and opening post.</p>
<p>The guidelines are designed to protect kids that are transgendered. If you read their stories, these are truly people that were “born in the wrong body” and are taking steps to correct it.</p>
<p>To even suggest that someone might use these guidelines to gain advantage in college admissions is kind of over the top.</p>
<p>^ I’m not saying you were pointing a finger at my post at all, but just to clarify I was not suggesting that any student would do that (try to game certain advantages related to gender in admissions). My question is how is that handled. Can the school go on and honor the policy that the hs system has been using or is it up to the individual colleges they are applying to. I may not have expressed it well. I am in total agreement with your post in describing these students.</p>
<p>One unfortunate thing in the Smith case coverage is that Smith is not obligated to admit this person either way. It’s probably safer of them to say sorry we won’t consider your application than to let the app through and reject.</p>
<p>The headline (and subject line) is awful and completely misleading. If a student is transgender they should be able to go to school as the gender they identify with with the full support and respect of the school. I’ve heard stories about teachers contributing to trans students getting harassed by calling them the wrong name and making things harder.</p>
<p>I also really don’t like the words declare and claim being used in this case.</p>
<p>I think that for students who go through a transition in high school, advantages in college admissions are about the last thing on their minds. For people thinking about this, can you think of any high school students you know who would change their gender because it might give them a better shot at some schools? For these students, there is a legitimate and much deeper identity issue going on.</p>
<p>I am not aware of how prevalent transgenderism is; my guess is that the impact of these policies will be next to nil on the general student populations. Depending upon the numbers, however, there could be an impact on the future of women’s sports.</p>
<p>I’d imagine the NCAA has its own specific rules on transgender athletes. I know of one who played in college – Kye Allums. Kye was a trans male (born female) who had a basketball scholarship to play on the women’s team at George Washington. He had to delay any kind of medical transition, like taking hormones, if he wanted to keep playing, but he was openly identifying as male. He did end up leaving the team early though.</p>
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Agree 100%</p>
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Also agree 100%</p>
<p>I’ll step out now. My initial post was based on a first reaction thinking what if the college policy is different, poorly worded, and isn’t moving the conversation forward.</p>
<p>My S claims that he was born with the wrong race and wants to be allowed to self-identify as a URM. It is discrimination to allow people to self-identify with regard to gender and not race.</p>
<p>agree, what a misleading and sensationalized headline, and the initial post is misleading as it asserts that a student can simply say “hey, I’m a girl”. Not exactly.</p>
<p>I didn’t read the entire document either, however here’s it’s title;</p>
<p>Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity</p>
<p>this is positive movement in addressing the needs of transgendered people, why paint it in a negative light?</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, this may be what you meant, but just to clarify that is what Smith did (refused to consider the application, rather than considered and rejected the applicant). </p>
<p>I actually think the opposite; maybe it would have been “easier” to consider the applicant and reject based on qualifications, which they aren’t really obligated to explain one way or another. And it should be noted that Smith does have transgender students who applied and entered as female, and now consider themselves male (and expect to be referred to as such). The problem in that instance was that the FAFSA declared the applicant to be a male (presumably based on the social security number, which lists as male, likely issued right after birth via the hospital forms). So if the student hadn’t applied for financial aid, it may have been a non-issue.</p>
<p>I just read an article (maybe in sports illustrated?) about a boxer who competes as a woman, but was born a man. The boxing association that establishes rules for that sport has set in place a number of specific guidelines, like the athlete must have been on the appropriate hormones for a period of at least two years, among other guidelines. Seems to me that all-women colleges would be prudent in developing similar standards for admission (or rather ability to apply) for these individuals (if they haven’t already). I would think high schools would be similarly prudent to establish these guidelines for their sports programs. I personally would not think it fair for a male-born student to be able to compete against females in most sports without some hormone suppressing intervention.</p>
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<p>Yes, this would be my concern rather than post-high school play, which already has gender criteria in place. In general, the average born-male student has an innate athletic advantage over the average born-female student. This is why we have separate gendered sports. Otherwise, the girls would have almost no chance to compete at the varsity/upper levels. </p>
<p>If transgenderism is a rarity, then it would not be much of an issue. If it is not so rare, I could see how in a very large high school it could have a noticeable impact on girls’ teams.</p>
<p>The headline/title just goes to show how truly misunderstood transgendered people are. Quite sad.</p>