Harvard Mulls Including Transgendersim in Non-Discrimination Policy

As Harvard administrators contemplate changing the University's non-discrimination policy, national transgender activists say Harvard is at the forefront of a profound change in the way society perceives gender.

Indeed, a national media blitz has surrounded Alex S. Myers '00, an outspoken, openly transgendered undergraduate, since last spring when he urged the Undergraduate Council to add a statement on gender expression to its non-discrimination policy.

Nancy R. Nangeroni, an MIT graduate and Cambridge resident who is "not content to be simply [male or female]", says there is no harm in "allowing people to self-determine gender", despite the American Psychiatric Association (APA) classification of transsexualism as a "sexual deviation."

Nangeroni and activists on campus say Harvard should ignore that definition and let students self-determine their gender for the purposes of housing and athletic teams.

After some debate, the council complied with Myers' request to include the idea of gender-expression in its non-discrimination clause, which applies to all student groups who receive funding from the council.

But the College and the University have been slower to change.

The administrators who met with the undergraduate Transgender Task Force last year seem to be receptive to the idea of discounting the APA's designation though they have yet to make a definitive decision on the validity of self-determination of gender.

"We will not use it as a standard," say Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III, "I personally don't consider [transgenderism] a disorder."

The task force, comprised of members from the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgendered and Supporter's Alliance and the Undergraduate Council, plans to begin campus-wide education efforts about the issue this year. It will also contact Faculty within the next few weeks to urge them to adopt the change if the issue is brought to them by the deans.

But some psychiatrists, such as Charles W. Socarides '45, agree with the APA's designation and believe that people who want to change their gender should be treated through psychoanalysis.

"To call [transgenderism] something as normal as apple pie does a great injustice to children as well as adults," says Socarides, who is president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.

"For Harvard itself--this great institution--to formally approve of such a pathology is flagrantly wrong and unscientific no matter what the gay activists would say," he says.

'Born to Be...Transgendered'

For Myers, who renounced his biological sex and began living as a male during his senior year of high school, transgenderism has nothing to do with medicine.

"From a personal standpoint, what the APA thinks of transgenderism, I'm not really concerned with," he says, adding that the APA also classified homosexuality as a mental disorder until the mid-1970s. "There's historical precedent for the APA being wrong."

Myers says he was "born to be...transgendered" in the same way people are born to be a certain race.

And he says he believes the proposed change in the University's non-discrimination policy would affect every student, not just those who are transgendered.

"Every member of Harvard's student body has a gender expression," he says.

David Seil, a Boston psychiatrist who has seen more than 250 transgendered patients, also says that there is a wide range of gender expression.

"Society seems to need to dichotomize gender, [but] many people don't fit at one end of the scale or another. People wander back and forth in their lifetimes," he says. "The evolution will have to be [toward] more flexibility [in terms of envisioning gender]."

Unlike Socarides, Seil says he believes that transgendered people should be protected under the University's non-discrimination policy.

'Plumbing Fixtures Are Plumbing Fixtures'

Critics of the proposal, however, argue that changing the policy would wreak havoc on the University's housing system and athletic teams.

Nangeroni, executive director of the International Foundation for Gender Education, admits that she doesn't have all the answers.

But she says it is important that people work together to find the best possible solutions.

"Plumbing fixtures are plumbing fixtures and they don't have any genders," she says. "If people feel unsafe in the bathroom then we need to have single bathrooms."

Nangeroni advocates allowing students to decide for themselves which housing is appropriate for them.

The University took that path last year, when Myers was a first-year. Though no policies were made or changed for his arrival, he was placed in a Greenough single and used an all-male bathroom at the end of his hall. The College did not inform the other students on Myers' hall of his biological sex, though he announced it to his proctor group in the fall of that year.

"It's been on a case-by-case basis," Epps says.

And although Nangeroni says the issue of athletic teams is more difficult, she adds that there are places where transgendered people are participating on teams based on their self-determined gender.

"That seems to me a positive trend," she says.

Riki A. Wilchins, executive director of the New York and D.C.-based Gender Pubic Advocacy Coalition, also says that people should "compete and live in the sex in which they live their normal daily lives."

"I don't know if we'll ever get to the point where there are no categories," she says. "But I do hope that we make significant progress toward a point where categories are not regulated so fiercely and people are not punished or discriminated against for moving from one to the other.

But some psychiatrists, such as Charles W. Socarides '45, agree with the APA's designation and believe that people who want to change their gender should be treated through psychoanalysis.

"To call [transgenderism] something as normal as apple pie does a great injustice to children as well as adults," says Socarides, who is president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.

"For Harvard itself--this great institution--to formally approve of such a pathology is flagrantly wrong and unscientific no matter what the gay activists would say," he says.

'Born to Be...Transgendered'

For Myers, who renounced his biological sex and began living as a male during his senior year of high school, transgenderism has nothing to do with medicine.

"From a personal standpoint, what the APA thinks of transgenderism, I'm not really concerned with," he says, adding that the APA also classified homosexuality as a mental disorder until the mid-1970s. "There's historical precedent for the APA being wrong."

Myers says he was "born to be...transgendered" in the same way people are born to be a certain race.

And he says he believes the proposed change in the University's non-discrimination policy would affect every student, not just those who are transgendered.

"Every member of Harvard's student body has a gender expression," he says.

David Seil, a Boston psychiatrist who has seen more than 250 transgendered patients, also says that there is a wide range of gender expression.

"Society seems to need to dichotomize gender, [but] many people don't fit at one end of the scale or another. People wander back and forth in their lifetimes," he says. "The evolution will have to be [toward] more flexibility [in terms of envisioning gender]."

Unlike Socarides, Seil says he believes that transgendered people should be protected under the University's non-discrimination policy.

'Plumbing Fixtures Are Plumbing Fixtures'

Critics of the proposal, however, argue that changing the policy would wreak havoc on the University's housing system and athletic teams.

Nangeroni, executive director of the International Foundation for Gender Education, admits that she doesn't have all the answers.

But she says it is important that people work together to find the best possible solutions.

"Plumbing fixtures are plumbing fixtures and they don't have any genders," she says. "If people feel unsafe in the bathroom then we need to have single bathrooms."

Nangeroni advocates allowing students to decide for themselves which housing is appropriate for them.

The University took that path last year, when Myers was a first-year. Though no policies were made or changed for his arrival, he was placed in a Greenough single and used an all-male bathroom at the end of his hall. The College did not inform the other students on Myers' hall of his biological sex, though he announced it to his proctor group in the fall of that year.

"It's been on a case-by-case basis," Epps says.

And although Nangeroni says the issue of athletic teams is more difficult, she adds that there are places where transgendered people are participating on teams based on their self-determined gender.

"That seems to me a positive trend," she says.

Riki A. Wilchins, executive director of the New York and D.C.-based Gender Pubic Advocacy Coalition, also says that people should "compete and live in the sex in which they live their normal daily lives."

"I don't know if we'll ever get to the point where there are no categories," she says. "But I do hope that we make significant progress toward a point where categories are not regulated so fiercely and people are not punished or discriminated against for moving from one to the other.