Academia, Congress, Constitutional Law, Society, Uncategorized

Northwestern Transgender Student Seeks Entry To Sorority

imgres-1Northwestern University is facing an interesting controversy that captures the new reality for schools in dealing with alternative gender identifications.  A freshman at the school was born a female but now identifies as a male.  Adam Davies wants to participate in Greek life but is not ready to join a fraternity. So Davies has asked to join a sorority as a male with a female body.  He insists that his interest “transcends the gender binary” but some have objected to leaving such choices to the individual’s determination on gender.

Davies says that he is in transition to a male as a transgender student.

Various sororities have begun to open up their ranks to transgender students.  In this case, however, no sorority (among 12 at the school) extended Davies an offer to join.  The case has opened up a debate as to whether sororities that reject such applicants should be found as violating discrimination rules.

Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in education but the federal government has declared social fraternities and sororities are exempt.  A May 13th letter from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the Department of Education states that greek organizations “are therefore permitted under Title IX to set their own policies regarding the sex, including the gender identity, of their members.”

 

To his credit, Davis took the rejection in stride and said that he appreciated the consideration given to his application.  

 

63 thoughts on “Northwestern Transgender Student Seeks Entry To Sorority”

  3. I’m so confused. Adam was born female, identifies as male, but wants to be in a sorority instead of a fraternity, while being addressed with the pronoun “he”? I’m having trouble keeping the circular thread of his argument. It sounds like he is saying that anyone who wants to join a sorority should be allowed to, and that gender restrictions should be thrown out entirely…which would effectively destroy sororities and fraternities and replace them with coed clubs.

    I have no problem whatsoever with coed clubs, or gender discriminatory clubs such as sororities and fraternities. If you want to start a club for Asian Transgender Knitters And Rugby Players, or a Highland Games Club, it’s all good. We have the right of free association, and if we want to form a club based on gender, religion, orientation, interests, etc, we have a right to do so. Does an applicant have the right to change the entire nature of those clubs and force them to accept that applicant? No, not in my opinion.

    We all have the right to waltz to our own tune, and we must be tolerant of the fact that some will like it and some will not.

    1. She doesn’t have to make sense. She just has to push the buttons of lawyers and academics. Giving her what she wants will do her no favors, but they’ll do it, just like the quack doctors do it.

  4. The dude/chick does her sort more harm than good. That should be the benchmark. When a cause goes over the line and shames itself, simply say no. Of course, lawyers gots ta make their money and complainers gots ta complain. This is, however, the sort of entertainment that does relatively little harm, unlike the entertainment going on in DC.

  5. The legal profession has brought us to this. Not lawyers as human beings but the state of the profession. The constant parsing of angling for new reasons to bring forth action, compelling the defending side to enlist the help of similarly talented and expensive barristers. DBs like this student only serve to irritate those who merely want to associate with people of their choice.

  6. Gender is set at birth by the chromosomes. Everything else is personal dysfunction and neurosis.

    1. Yep. Tried to keep one eye on the remake of True Grit last night while working, and I enjoyed the clarity of dealing with immediate and real problems. Have to say I don’t think that was Brolin’s best work. Jeff Bridges always gets the job done.

    2. Some people distinguish sex, based on biological function, from gender, based on social role.

      I think that is a useful distinction that helps sort through some of the questions that come up.

      And I am a bit surprised that some courts seem to treat sex and gender as synonyms. I am not surprised, but I don’t think it is helpful, that some people use gender like a smarter, more genteel word for sex.

      1. I don’t think I’ll ever have to treat them. I’m not a physician specializing in genetic disorders.
        Killing someone sprang from your mind, not mine, so the decision and apparently the impulse of considering that option is 100% yours.

        1. Are you a physician who does NOT “specialize in genetic disorders”?

          You claim these people exhibit “personal dysfunction and neurosis”. You sound like a physician providing a medical diagnosis. Are you classifying them as mentally ill? And, if so, what do you propose their treatment plan to be? And, will that plan be voluntary or coerced?

          And, contrary to your A$$umption, I actually love and adore these people, and have NO intention of killing them, nor anyone else (except if I was in fear for my life).

          But, I HAVE heard many heteronormative individuals – including physicians – refer to transgender individuals as “dysfunctional” and “neurotic” (among other claims) who call for them to be snuffed.

          1. Expat, if a man says he’s a plant and insists his co-workers water him every day, it’s a reasonable wager he’s (a) jerking their chain or (b) seriously disordered upstairs. If a professional tells you he’s not, the professional is using a nonsense taxonomy, likely because the professional is part of a guild which has nonsense values.

            What Paul McHugh had to say about the ethics of gender reassignment a generation ago (“We don’t give liposuction to anorectics”) still applies.

      2. Red herring. The people subject to sex reassignment surgery and hormone treatments are rarely people with these disorders. (And neither Turner’s cases nor Kleinfelter’s cases tend much toward androgyny).

  7. Bet money this kid has a 504.
    Best way to get accommodations and use as an advantage, get identified.
    Soon obesity will be a disability.

  8. Sororities and fraternities are all about discrimination. All kinds of students attempt to join and may are rejected. Adam is all right that no invitation to join was given so why is this a story?

  9. “A freshman at the school was born a female but now identifies as a male. Adam Davies wants to participate in Greek life but is not ready to join a fraternity.”

    It would seem this individual’s indecision on which gender he/she identifies with should be the answer to the question. Figure out what you are and then apply to either a fraternity or sorority.

  11. Caught in a dilemma. Born a female, identifies as a male, but he/they want to join a sorority. If not yet ready to join a fraternity, isn’t he/they also not ready to join a sorority?

  12. Each person has a right to do what they want with their body, but what gives them the right to expect the entirety of society to cater to them regarding their individual decisions? I was taught that when I made a decision I should expect to live with the consequences of that decision. Today’s child is taught that when one makes a decision, one reshapes society to accommodate that individual decision. What nonsense.

  14. Looks like the chickens have come home to roost in snowflake land. One answer is to ban the Greeks and other non scholastic oriented entities entirely.

    2. I will go one step further. Ban that nonsense, and ban sports.
      Higher learning only. Get an education and get the hell out of there.
      Save your pocketbook.

  16. This is an ingenious angle I never would have thought of in my day. Dude’s gonna be surrounded by nubile scantily-clad sorority girls 24×7, and he’s going to have the full liberal establishment backing his cause.

    1. SHE was born female. SHE is still a female. The only difference is, this poor creatures demon’s have her lusting after females.
      Clearly SHE does not identify as a MALE or SHE would want to be surrounded by all that real testosterone in the fraternity.

  18. He’s a nuisance whose avocation is jerking everyone’s chain. It’s a reasonable wager he’s gotten positive feedback for this for nearly 20 years by indulgent parents and worthless bureaucratized schools. At this juncture, the sororities and the Georgetown administration would do him and everyone else a favor by telling him the world doesn’t owe him attention or deference. Of course they won’t. He’s gotten this far with these games and knows how to play them with willing marks.

  20. With circuses being put out of business, universities have become our new freak show.

Comments are closed.