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Transgender student fights denial of housing at SUU

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One student is making this big of a stink, maybe we need to rethink how we handle the minority.

I would feel extremely uncomfortable sharing a dorm room and bathroom with someone who was not of the same gender. It's embarrassing enough to share with someone who is. What about the other student's rights. I'm sorry if my personal feelings seem unfair and discriminatory, but there it is. I have rights too. I don't believe that hormone treatments and surgery truly change a person's gender. If they asked the other students who had no problem sharing with a transgender person and they had no problem with it, than I am fine, but don't force me. I have a right to have my own opinions and beliefs. Just because I don't agree with the people above does not make me a bad person. It just makes me a person who has certain comfort zones. I would never be rude to someone regardless of their sexual orientation, but leave me my personal options.

It took Rosa Parks to make a big stink by refusing to sit at the back of the bus. Maybe you need to rethink the power of one person to create change.

Claire, if you would feel uncomfortable sharing a bathroom/dorm room with someone who is a different gender than you, imagine what kind of discomfort a person who is transgender feels. They do not choose this lifestyle and they should not be punished for it. If anything you should applaud a person who is actually taking a step to enhance their lives. Would you feel comfortable sharing a room with someone who was on hormone replacement because they had to have a hysterectomy at a young age due to complications beyond their control? You are correct in stating that hormones don't change a person, they help a person function on a normal daily level. The medications work the same for someone who is over weight and needs an appetite suppressant or for someone who is bipolar and needs a mood balancing medication. No one should be judged or discriminated against simply because they've decided to change their life for the better.

Maybe we don't need to "handle" the minority. Maybe we just need to respect them and acknowledge that they have the same rights as all human beings. I happen to be in a religious "minority" and don't want to be handled either, thanks.

I would like to see the Deseret News' editorial board take a position on this matter.

I am troubled by how classist the Univeristy's position is. Gender reassignment surgery is an incredibly expensive procedure�prohibitively expensive for the vast majority of transgendered people. SUU apparently expects a person in Mr Osborn's position (in his twenties without a college education) to have somehow amassed the necessary resources to meet their requirements. Those who come from all but the highest classes of our society will never be able to do so. SUU's policy establishes a barrier to on-campus housing that is effectively impossible for the vast majority of transgendered students to meet.

What are individuals like Clare really afraid of? Physical anatomy is now what defines who we are, and this should not be used to segerate individuals. Fact is, individuals who have problems with transfolks usually have gender idenitiy or sexual orientation problems of their own and project their problems upon others. Fact is, many female to male transgender individuals never have genitial or bottom surgery for good reasons and hormone therapy is a life long health care reality. Adding to the problem of surgery, it almost never covered by health car insurance which is similar to with holding treatment for cancer or other deadly health condition. The genitial surgery requirement is another narrow minded idea that one's true self is defined by their genitals which has no scientific basis and a moral rather than realistic view of how nature really is.

If he/she can't figure out who they are how are the administrators or roomates supposed to?

The student knows exactly who he is. But he's being told that he's not male enough to be in male housing, yet not female enough to be in female housing ... how does the university justify that standard?

He knows who he is, he simply doesn't want the surgery at this time. A friend of mine died early this month at the ripe old age of 94. While he was born female, he had lived as a man his entire adult life. I met him when I was 6 and was offered no explanation about what he or she was. Somehow I made it to 39 without being damaged and figured it out when I was 12. I think a bunch of college students can handle this.

Why should the rest of the people in the dorm have to put their standards and beliefs to the side for the sake of another? What about their beliefs and feelings? No it is not OK to treat others badly based on gender, orientation, race, or religion. Everyone deserves respect, but respecting someone is entirely different from forcing others to accept the beliefs of one person. If the university does not have mixed housing, then they should provide another alternative, but not at the expense of the other students.

I think that everyone is missing one obvious point. I am not against or for what the school is doing, it is not my place. But I for one, think that it could be for the safety of the individual. Yes this individual lives the lifestyle of a male, but is still a female by anatomy. What happens if some of the other male roommates find out and the unimaginable happens and they take advantage of him, or worse rape him. I don't like thinking of worse case scenarios, but if this happened, the school would be held accountable and this individual. I don't know if this is why they are holding out on allowing this student to room with the male students or not, but it is a point to keep in mind. Unfortunately in our society, we all must keep in mind the safety of individuals, before we start granting the wishes of all in their quests to be accepted.

Not that it should matter, but The Intersex Initiative estimates that 1 in 2000 births (five Americans every day) are born intersexual, meaning the baby's outward genitalia is "non-traditional" from birth onward. Gentically, these folks have a gender but their genitals do not match it, or their genitals are anatomically a mixture of both male and female, etc. It's none of our business whether the student in this article was born intersexual or if he was born with genitals that do not match his cognitive gender - either way, it's impossible to justify discriminating against this person. Intersexual folks may also be transgender, and vice versa, but not necessarily. I mention the issue of intersexuality only to further confound the folks who are made uncomfortable by gender bending. Gender ambiguity is normal, folks, and it's always been around! Deal!

Anonymous: Nobody's asking anyone to change their values. What is at stake is whether you believing I'm making wrong choices justifies preventing me from living with you at a public school. Anyone who values anything will occasionally have to meet people who do not feel the same way. It's not about forcing beliefs, it's acknowledging that not everybody sees the world the way you do.

Andy:

Men get raped too. Putting male genitals on Kourt will not magically make him safe from an unaccepting mob of men. And I would invite you and all those who think Kourt should just get the surgery to take a look at some "post operative" pictures for female-to-male patients. Apart from the cost, the surgery results in more of a mutilation than a phallus.

When I attended what was then Southern Utah State College in the early 1980's, I lived in Juniper Hall and it was co-ed, but the guys had one floor, the girls another, like that. Is it still like that? And could that be any type of solution?

As a scientist (molecular genetics/virology) I'd like to make a small point. You are born with either XX chromosomes or XY chromosomes, which designate you male or female. Hormone therapy or 'reassignment' doesn't change this salient fact. I'm tired of political correctness. Let's call a spade a spade. Any sexual behavior that doesn't correspond to the inherent nature of procreation (man and woman) is a sexual perversion. Look it up in the dictionary. A perversion is any extreme deviation from normalcy, in this case, biological normalcy. A female should not be placed in a male dorm. Before you call me a bigot, please remember that I'm basing this on scientific fact, not on emotion. I don't discriminate people based on whatever views they have. I simply see a situation for what it is. SHE should be placed in a female dorm because she has two X chromosomes.

I just had to say something to this:

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Uh, wrong. Lots of Universities and institutions of higher learning have co-ed dorms. THAT is a fact. Your opinion wasn't scientific.

However, I would never call you a bigot. You and I just see things differently.

Maybe, just maybe, you are a scientist. If you are a scientist then you also have to admit that new discoveries are being made everyday and that what was a "fact" 20 years ago, may not be a "fact" tomorrow. There are hundreds of studies being conducted on gender and the results are proving it is not as simple as being XX or XY anymore. Since 10% of mammals participate in homosexual behavior, I guess you think that penguins are perverted too, eh?