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Tuesday, December 02, 2014 02:14 AM

Queer & Trans* Liberation Includes the Eradication of Anti-Black Racism & Police Violence ~ This Struggle is Our Struggle!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 1, 2014

Contact: jen self, Publications and Communications Chair, [email protected]

The Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals stands in solidarity with our members, communities, and all communities who are deeply saddened and disappointed by the decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown, Jr. This decision to not indict Officer Darren Wilson, as well as the actions and opinions that led up to this decision, speaks to the structural racism that is embedded in our judicial system. The Consortium remains steadfast in our stance against police brutality, the excessive use of force, and the militarization of police forces, specifically as it affects Black communities and other communities of color.

As articulated beautifully by a student leader from a university in the Northeastern Region, “The struggle for queer liberation includes Black bodies, imprisoned bodies, and those who are constantly targeted by police violence. This struggle is our struggle.”

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Wednesday, October 01, 2014 06:33 PM

LGBTQ Allied Organizations Call for National Advocacy & Charges Dropped for LGBTQ Survivors of Violence

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 30, 2014

We, the undersigned allied lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) organizations are deeply concerned by the national trend of prosecuting survivors of anti-LGBTQ hate violence for defending themselves.  Currently Eisha Love, a young African American transgender woman, who was violently attacked by a group of people in a transphobic hate violence incident in her own neighborhood, is facing first degree attempted murder charges for defending herself from this attack. Eisha was the only person arrested. Eisha is currently being held by the Cook County department of Corrections in Chicago. 

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Monday, September 08, 2014 10:18 PM

Mills College & Mount Holyoke College Break the Glass Gender Binary by Admitting Trans Women!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 8, 2014

Contact: jen self, Publications and Communications Chair, [email protected]

New York, NY: The Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals wishes to hail the decisions of Mills College and Mount Holyoke College the first of the 119 “single-sex” campuses in the U.S. to admit trans* women. While Mills College’s policy explicitly opens admission to trans* women and allows for the continued enrollment of trans* men, the policy does not open the door to the admission of trans* men who have legally changed their gender markers to “M.” Mount Holyoke College pushed the boundaries of gender a bit further by creating a policy that allows for the admission of any trans* person. According to Mitch Kellaway of the Advocate, The only people unable to apply and be admitted to Mount Holyoke, under the new policy, are “cisgender men — those biologically born male [who] identify as men.”

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Friday, August 01, 2014 12:06 PM

Consortium to George Fox University ~ Support & Affirm all gender identities 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 1, 2014

Contact: Jen Self, Publications & Communication Chair, [email protected]

George Fox University, a small Quaker college in Oregon, has recently made the decision to prevent a student from being housed in a way that affirms his gender identity. In July, the university clarified that their sex-segregated housing policy is based on anatomical sex rather than on gender identity. George Fox has also sought, and received, a religious-based exemption to the Title IX guidelines that would otherwise require the college to respect this student’s gender identity. The Consortium is concerned about two main dimensions of this case.

First, physical sex is an insufficient measure upon which to make housing decisions. While some transgender individuals do undergo gender confirmation surgery in order to align their bodies with their gender identities, for many trans* people surgery is prohibitively expensive, medically unwise, or otherwise undesirable. Requiring a young transgender person to undergo surgery before they are prepared to do so could be harmful to that person, and is a practice specifically condemned by the World Health Organization. Moreover, defining housing under a strict interpretation of genital status ignores the existence of intersex people, who often find themselves left out of normative definitions of sex. While there are many factors that go into making a safe and educational housing environment, genital characteristics should be the least of these considerations.

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Wednesday, July 16, 2014 12:00 AM

Board Retreat Update 2014

Greetings from the Consortium board!


We have all returned safely from our travels to the University of Vermont. There, we hosted our 2014 Summer Institute on July 11. Following that, we held our Board Retreat from July 12 - 15. We are grateful for the opportunity to connect with each other and plan for the year ahead. Read on to learn about everything we accomplished and how you can get involved.


Summer Institute

We began the retreat by hosting our summer institute, titled “Points of Influence: LGBTQ Students, Social Change, and You.” Over 130 student affairs professionals, graduate students, and K-12 educators attended. One highlight of the institute was our keynote address featuring Representative Bill Lippert, Representative Kesha Ram, and UCLA’s Raja Bhattar. We had a great time! Thanks to our Education Chair, Shaun Travers, for leading the work to make the institute possible.


Anti-Racism and Inclusion

We grounded our time together in a discussion of our values as a social justice organization. We discussed our responsibilities to demonstrate these values as individual board members and as the Consortium as a collective organization.


Implementing the Strategic Plan

Our time together at the retreat focused on carrying out our strategic plan. Board members will be working to make the following things happen:

  1. Member Engagement: Increase support for graduate students and new professionals with an emphasis on the professional pipeline for POC and TGQ members.

  2. Communications: Increase communication to members and external stakeholders.

  3. Member Professional Development: Increase professional development opportunities within the organization for mid-level and seasoned professionals with a focus on professional development around anti-racism and intersections of identity.

  4. Setting Standards: Develop and publish standards of professional practice for the profession.

  5. Organizational Development: Establish financial stability to support the growth of the organization.


Next Steps

Over the next few months, you should expect to see your board carry out the plans we made in Vermont. Many of these action steps need your approval in the form of votes and your support through joining committees and working groups. We encourage you to connect with us as chairs or the appropriate board member if you’re interested in getting involved. Highlights include:

  • Strengthening our communication by providing more content on the public and members-only sides of our website.

  • Fundraising strategies that allow us to continue providing support for members in an equitable fashion.

  • Sharing educational resources that reflect the broadest and most inclusive approaches to identity, difference, and social justice.

  • Providing strategies to help develop LGBT2 practitioners.

  • Highlight the voices of transfeminine people within higher education.

  • Connecting with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

  • Conducting a new self-study of Consortium members, which will include gathering information about salaries, career plans, and demographics.

  • Strengthening connections with our partner organizations and creating memoranda of agreement.

  • Meeting the diverse needs of our members during Creating Change 2015 (February 4 - 8 in Denver, Colorado).


Thank You

We are grateful to the board for spending part of their summer focusing on this work. One of the major advantages of the summer retreat is that it allows our board to be together in person. For most of the year, we are physically far apart, connecting only by phone and email. Being together for the retreat means that we can set expectations, make plans, and get to know each other. We had a great time learning about each other!


We were fortunate to have the support of Dot BrauerBecky Swem, and Evan Litwiń of the LGBTQA Center at UVM in planning and executing these events. Thank you and your colleagues for all of their help! We truly enjoyed our time in Burlington.  Just as UVM did, we encourage you to consider hosting the Consortium at your campus for the institute and retreat! We’ll send more information soon.


Thank you for your continued support of the Consortium and our board!

 
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