BREAKING: Transgender student denied campus housing at public Utah college
by Matt | December 14th, 2007 |InterstateQ.com Exclusive
(re-print permissions details at end of story)
CEDAR CITY, Utah - Dec. 14, 2007 - Demonstrating the need for gender neutral and inclusive housing policies for public and private universities across the nation, a 22-year-old transgender student in Utah has been denied campus housing specifically because of his gender-identity and expression.
Kourt Osborn (pictured right, during the Soulforce Equality Ride, March-April 2007), a youth activist who participated in the 2007 Soulforce Equality Ride, decided to be open and honest with his gender-identity when preparing to attend school at the public Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah. Kourt approached the housing department prepared to deal with the issue of his life as a transgender person.
He prepared a long essay explaining to housing officials who he is and including some “Trans 101″ type of basic lessons on transgender people and issues they must face.
Although Kourt said the process of getting housing — he had applied to live in the male dorms — was “bumpy and stressful,” he thought things were going okay. But when he received a message from housing officials, he knew something was up.
For over an hour, Kourt met with Neuman Duncan, the director of university housing, on his way to take a math placement exam this week.
“During our conversation,” Kourt said, “he told me that a sociology professor on campus believed I was ‘not truly a transsexual’ because I do not seek sexual reassignment surgery.”
Kourt said the university will only allow him housing in male residence halls after he provides:
- a letter from the doctor that monitors his hormone treatment;
- a letter from his therapist saying that he has gender identity disorder, or gender dysphoria; and
- official documentation that he has had sexual reassignment surgery.
Kourt had already provided the housing department with a letter from a doctor who monitors his hormone treatment. For personal reasons, Kourt does not seek to be diagnosed with “gender identity disorder” and does not want to seek sexual reassignment surgery.
He said that if he did not present the three items requested by the university, then he would not be allowed to live in male housing. At the same time, the university has denied housing for him in female housing, as well.
At this time, Kourt is not allowed to live in any part of the public university’s campus housing. He is currently considering his options and how to proceed with the issue.
“I thought it would be easiest to live in on-campus housing. I was wrong. Really wrong,” he said. “I can find other places to live, but I believe this has gone far beyond just me.
“What about other trans-people that might want to live there?”
Commentary:
Picture yourself living in North Carolina 60 years ago:
There is a university for white students and a university for black students. A bi-racial student with a white mother and a black father approaches both universities for admittance. The white university says she cannot enroll because she is not white. The black university similarly says she cannot enroll because she is not black.
Although something like this scenario probably never would have happened — as the bi-racial student would have most likely been accepted at the black university — it helps to paint a picture that surely helps illustrate an important point: When people do not fit into a structured, discriminatory and binary system, the chances of discrimination against that person goes up… way up.
Such is the case with Kourt. He is a person who does not fit into society’s tidy binary system on gender. Because he has transgressed society’s gender rules, the discrimination he faces on a daily basis — including the denial of housing at a public university — is very real and hardly ever subtle.
The National Student Genderblind Campaign, founded and currently led by Guilford College (Greensboro, N.C.) student David Norton, was formed to battle just this kind of situation. The Campaign encourages education, awareness and policy work to create new avenues for gender-neutral housing on college campuses.
This is what the Campaign says on their website concerning why everyone should care about campus housing-related gender issues:
- University mandated gender-based segregation is a gross and arbitrary enfringment to our right as students — and our license as adults — to self-determination.
- Traditional rooming policies — those without gender-neutral options — are heterosexist, oppressive, and anti-affirmative:
- they marginalize gay, lesbian, bisexual, and students of various sexual orientations who feel comfortable, or more comfortable, rooming with someone of the opposite sex/gender;
- they alienate transgender, genderqueer, and intersexed students who are forced into discriminatory, gendered rooming situations based on biological/legal sex rather than gender identification;
- they assume that men and women can never, and will never, live together non-sexually given the choice to do so;
- and they needlessly reinforce an oppressive gender binary and perpetuate gender segregation.
- Gender-restrictive policy is an everyday, yet often unnoticed, manifestation of instutional heterosexism. At its core — in a heterosexually dominated culture — heterosexism assumes that heterosexual relationships represent the norm and are, therefore, implicitly superior to “non-normative” relationships.
According to the Campaign (PDF), only 23 colleges or universities across the nation currently offer some sort of gender-neutral housing policy, in whole or part. Southern Utah University is not one of them.
Related Posts:
- Transgender student files formal grievance, more response from Southern Utah Dec. 19
- Southern Utah responds to denial of transgender student housing Dec. 18
- Update: Trans Utah student - Press release from Equality Utah and Utah Pride Center Dec. 17
- BREAKING: Transgender student denied campus housing at public Utah college Dec. 14
Re-Print Permissions: This story can be re-printed as-is under the following restrictions: (1) A Byline must be included and read: “by Matt Comer (InterstateQ.com) . Special to [name of your publication]”; and (2) If posted online, a link back to the InterstateQ.com posting must be provided at end of online article.
22 Responses to “BREAKING: Transgender student denied campus housing at public Utah college”
Kourt should contact Lambda Legal.
By KipEsquire on Dec 14, 2007
Fortunately here in North Carolina, most of the larger universities by now have on-campus apartment-style housing…a bedroom with it’s own bathroom, that a student can have to avoid this type of situation. Hopefully as time goes on, more universities will have the same.
By RaleighRob on Dec 14, 2007
Thanks for publicizing this, Matt. I’ve got my thoughts up here
By Allyson on Dec 14, 2007
The thing about north carolina and apartment housing is nice, that a trans student can be isolated, but thats not always what is best. Why cant a transgendered man live with other men if he so chooses. The option of a single may be what alot of trans students want; however, that is the situation I am in as a transguy who is a first year. Unlike the other first years, I had to make a community outside college. Living in a residence hall is a huge part of college that trans students miss and alot of the social groups that get formed come from that first year of living with other people.
By rey on Dec 15, 2007
Rey… I totally agree. One of my best friends, even now after college, was a girl who lived in my co-ed dorm my freshman year of college.
While at UNC-Greensboro I tried pushing through a resolution supporting gender-neutral housing policies on campus. Unfortunately it didn’t pass.
The housing problem needs to be solved sooner rather than later. There is absolutely no reason for colleges not to have gender-neutral and inclusive housing policies — although it remains the rarity rather than the norm.
More info: http://www.genderblind.org
By Matt on Dec 15, 2007
I was going to keep it classy, but you know how we Philly folk roll….Fuck that shit! And fuck them bitches! I am sick of cisexual and/or heterosexual people being such dumbasses.
By Jess on Dec 16, 2007
I miss Kourt. I’m sorry he is going through this.
By Tara on Dec 16, 2007
Southern Utah University has had Trans-Gender students live in on-campus housing before. They were not denied housing, and provided proper documentation.
By Dennis on Dec 18, 2007
Dennis… That isn’t the issue. The current issue is that they are requiring documentation that shouldn’t be required. No one has the right to force someone to have sexual reassignment surgery — which is exactly what the university is telling Kourt to do if he wants to live on campus. He has been denied housing in female dorms AND male dorms. The University can’t have it both ways. If they say he isn’t male then he should be allowed to live in female housing (but they won’t even do that).
As for providing “proof” of gender, are we going to require that every student be examined for the “right” anatomical reproductive organs before they are assigned a room on campus?
What about men who have been castrated through some freak accident? Are we going to say they aren’t really male because they don’t have a penis and require them to give “proper documentation” that they are, indeed, male?
By Matt on Dec 18, 2007
I am aware of the issue, I just think that the policy that this decision is based off of is in place for what the University might call “protection” of residents. Men and women can not live together. That is how Housing and Residence Life works at SUU at the moment. I think that Kourt should be allowed to live on campus, but in which facility, and who with, I am just not sure. Now I sound like an insensitive jerk, but I promise you, I am not.
By Dennis on Dec 18, 2007
It seems to me that the University knows Kourt is male when they acknowledge that it “might make female residents uncomfortable” (paraphrase) if he lived in a female dorm. A lesbian might make a particular resident uncomfortable but that is certainly not grounds for denying her housing and colleges–including SUU, I believe–already recognize that. It seems to me that they are thus saying “It would make them uncomfortable because you are trans” or “It would make them uncomfortable because you are male.” The prior case should not be an issue since they’ve admitted trans students before and if that’s the latter, then there isn’t really an issue to discuss.
I hope that these are nothing more than growing pains as SUU learns how to deal with diversity. I’m glad Kourt is helping them along!
By Brian on Dec 18, 2007
Matt, thank you so much for bringing this matter to the media’s attention.
I’m Kourt’s mom. I am not extremely knowledgeable about transgender issues, but am deeply concerned by the treatment Kourt has received from the housing department. Nobody should have to have any kind of surgery to be allowed to live in on-campus housing.
Just because they have had other transgendered students live in on-campus housing by providing “proof” does not make their policy acceptable.
Mr. Dean O’Driscoll’s statement about Kourt’s application not even being considered is completely inaccurate. I have heard the voicemail from Mr. Nueman Duncan, the housing director. He is clearly denying accommodations for Kourt. Perhaps Mr. O’Driscoll did not thoroughly do his homework before making his statement.
Even if SUU did offer Kourt female housing, how would that make it right? Kourt totally identifies as male. He would have been identifying as male from the age of 2 if I had known about transgenderism then. Just because Kourt doesn’t have the correct genitals to live in male housing doesn’t mean he should have to live in female housing. Kourt should be able to live where he feels safe and comfortable.
And finally, how can SUU assume that students would feel uncomfortable living with Kourt? How dare they try to make the students as small-minded as the administrators!
SUU is a good school and I hope they change policy as a result of Kourt’s experience.
By Karel on Dec 18, 2007
You know though, this does pose an interesting thought. I am male…I was born male, and identify as male. But, if i were to walk into the Housing and Residence Life Office at SUU tomorrow, and say that I identify as female, with no documentation stating that I am, in fact, seeking hormone treatment, and do actually identify as a female, do I still have the right to live with girls at SUU? Simply because I say so? Now, I am not saying that Kourt is lying, or trying to do anything of the sort. I feel bad for Kourt. That being said, I don’t think that the University asking for some documentation of treatment is that out of line. Maybe I am wrong.
By Dennis on Dec 18, 2007
I understand where you’re coming from and I think you raise important questions: What is male “enough”? How do we even define “male”? Is it chromosomes, is it testosterone levels, is it genitalia, is it appearance, is it self-identification, is it external perception? How do you balance the rights of one person against the comfort level of another?
Should the university bar a student if the other residents don’t find him/her male/female “enough”? What if they him/her *too* gay? What if they’re uncomfortable with a person of color? Which prejudicial discomforts do we accommodate and which do we say “No, you will have to adjust” to?
In Kourt’s case, Kourt is seeing a doctor and is on monitored hormone treatment. In fact, when I first met Kourt and he told me that he was transgender, I thought that he was pre-transition MTF. I don’t think a certain “level of passing” should be required to be considered a certain gender, but in Kourt’s case there is little room for discussion: He is a guy. I can be pretty sure that all of the guys in the dorm I lived in freshman year would get along great with him.
I do think that this particular instance can give SUU–and organizations and individuals around the country–the opportunity to consider what they mean by “non-discrimination.” While Kourt’s case, to me at least, seems very cut and dry, I see this as an opportunity for SUU to wrestle with some of the questions Dennis raised: how do we judge gender?
And I echo Karel’s sentiment: Don’t assume that students will be uncomfortable or that they won’t be able to overcome their initial concerns about the unknown.
BTW Karel, it’s nice to hear from you! I was the Equality Rider permanently attached to the video camera.
By Brian on Dec 18, 2007
Dennis… I do appreciate your thoughts about just anyone stating they are seeking hormone therapy just to get into whatever dorm they want without documentation.
However, that is not the case with Kourt. He provided them with enough documentation (his driver’s license states that he is male) and was still denied housing because he hasn’t had surgery. Shouldn’t the driver’s license have been enough? Does any institution have the right to say what medical procedures should be done to meet their definition of male or female? Perhaps they will start checking in everyone’s pants to make sure they are up to university standards?
Kourt was honest and up front with them. It’s like the university is punishing him for his honesty. Their stance is only encouraging other transgender students to be less than honest.
Hi Brian! It’s good to hear from Kourt’s fellow Equality Riders. You all did awesome work!
By Karel on Dec 19, 2007
Dennis… It is also important to note that Kourt didn’t just show up and say he was a man.
He wrote a long essay explaining who he is and he did provide a letter from the doctor overseeing his hormone treatment.
For personal reasons, he doesn’t seek to be diagnosed with “gender identity disorder” (or any other mental disorder, for that matter — who would?) and he doesn’t seek surgery.
The University shouldn’t force people to have medical procedures like sexual reassignment surgery, especially when it isn’t needed.
By Matt on Dec 19, 2007
Could not agee with you more..
By Charlei Miller on Jan 12, 2008
That’s such a horrible story. I can’t believe that happened.
By Layla on Jul 25, 2008