Ivy Leaguers Fight ROTC for Trans Rights

STANFORD UNIVERSITY X390 (FAIR) | ADVOCATE.COM

Students at Stanford and Harvard are taking a stand to keep the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) away from their campuses until the military is completely inclusive and allows transgender people to join its ranks.

Alok Vaid-Menon, President of Stanford Students for Queer Liberation, said in a statement, that now was the time to make such demands, as the U.S. military prepares to repeal the ban on openly gay and lesbian troops.

“A re-introduction of ROTC on college campuses (including Stanford, Harvard, and Columbia) that include ‘gender identity’ in their non-discrimination clause is a fundamental violation of policy and an endorsement of discrimination,” Vaid-Menon said.

The group from Stanford and the Harvard Transgender Task Force wrote a joint statement to their college administrators asking them to consider not being so fast to welcome the ROTC back after a moratorium during the enforcement of "don't ask, don't tell."

The Transgender American Veterans Association released a statement Tuesday in support of the students' efforts.

"Allowing military recruiters and ROTC programs back on university and college campuses would not further equality under the law," the statement read. "This is because that along with sexual orientation, most universities and colleges have non-discrimination policies that include gender Identity and/or gender expression. Allowing ROTC programs back on university and college campuses before allowing transgender people to serve openly in the military services would violate the intent of antidiscrimination policies these universities and colleges currently have in place to protect transgender people from discrimination.

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Reader Comments

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Name: David W
Date posted: 2/3/2011 7:31:03 PM
Hometown: Seattle Wa

Comment:
I still want to know how this is going to affect Private Military Academies here in the USA that receive tax payer MONEY to run their ROTC programs. Are they going to be forced to admit Gay people in their homophobic Private Military Academies, like they did when Women were allowed into all Male Academies or Loose funding? The Real question is: Are the guardians of gay issues just going to sleep on this issue, like the HRC, or the Advocate? After all, these Military Academies are the places where the Military get’s it’s future leaders.
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Name: Pamela
Date posted: 2/3/2011 10:03:48 AM
Hometown: Columbus

Comment:
@jack and Scott - this isn't silly if you happen to be transgendered!! Just because your rights have beeh accommodated doesn't mean that discrimination is still not happening!! Or arf you one of those gay persons who think that trans-folk are not real, that we are just gay men too afraid to admit it!! BTW I am a trans-woman and a lesbian!!
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Name: Joseph
Date posted: 2/2/2011 6:18:56 PM
Hometown: Montgomery, AL

Comment:
To Andrew: While you're correct about the athletics usage, this can be found at the Wiki article on "Ivy League": "Ivy League" is sometimes used as a way of referring to an elite class, even though institutions such as Cornell University were among the first in the United States to reject racial and gender discrimination in their admissions policies. This sense dates back to at least 1935. Novels and memoirs attest this sense, as a social elite; to some degree independent of the actual schools. (Hey, if Sarah Palin can get away with changing the meaning of "blood libel" to describe how SHE has been treated, I'm sure the use of "Ivy League"--which predates the formation of the athletic conference by some two decades--can be allowed here.)
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Name: Andrew
Date posted: 2/2/2011 5:24:17 PM
Hometown: CA

Comment:
Stanford isn't an "Ivy League" school; it is a Pac 10 school that has very high admissions standards and is located on a beautiful small campus. This is similar to most of the schools in the Ivy League- which is a sports league- but that doesn't mean students there should be called "Ivy Leaguers". I know "Ivy League" is used to describe good schools by many people, but it just is not accurate when used to describe schools like Stanford, MIT, Northwestern, Duke, WashU, etc. And before someone asks- I didn't go to an Ivy League school. I'm trying to defend the schools that aren't in that sports league from being lumped in with them.
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Name: Dana
Date posted: 2/2/2011 4:24:40 PM
Hometown: Leominster

Comment:
Glad the students think human rights are important!
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Name: scott
Date posted: 2/2/2011 4:12:49 PM
Hometown: birmingham, al

Comment:
I am in full agreement with Jack. This is just plain silly.
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Name: Jack
Date posted: 2/2/2011 1:43:44 PM
Hometown: New York

Comment:
Be ware of the extreme left. They use gay rights. When the left supported gays in the military they meant something different. Gays wanted to be included. Straight leftist allies just wanted to destroy the military because they are against American strength. When the left supports gay marriage they really want to destroy the institution of marriage altogether by robbing it of its content. We want equality. Out allies want a revolution. At this point there is no reason to continue fighting the army. We won. Lets move on to a different area of equality. Dont buy into the left agenda. It is not our agenda. In Sweden in the last election a faminist party called for the abolition of the institution of marriage because it is anti women. We should be extremely suspicious of those who support gay right because they think being different is a cool form of rebellion against established social institutions.

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