Council Calls For University’s Non-discrimination Policy To Protect Transgendered Students

The Undergraduate Council (UC) made a push for transgender rights last night by urging the University to include “gender identity and expression” in its non-discrimination code.

The legislation, which passed by a vote of 33 in favor with three abstentions, comes two days before members of the Transgender Task Force (TTF) will meet with the Office of General Counsel to discuss inserting the clause.

Nine years ago, the UC passed a similar resolution calling for the addition of gender identity to the non-discrimination clause, but their requests were met with deaf ears.

The bill’s sponsors hope that the national trend in including gender identity and expression in non-discrimination policies, which they say have been adopted at 52 other American universities, will make this effort more successful.

“The administration has been pretty much ignoring this issue of fundamental protection of its students for almost a decade,” said the bill’s sponsor, Eric I. Kouskalis ’08. “More than 50 other colleges have this protection for its students, and it’s time for Harvard to have it too.”

Nearly 30 University and community groups co-sponsored the UC bill, including the Harvard Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance and the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response.

Supporters of the legislation argue that the current campus atmosphere toward transgender students forces them to move off-campus to avoid discrimination.

“This will be really important to those individuals who feel out of place here at Harvard,” said Gilda D. Medina ’09, a member of the TTF.

—Staff writer Rachel L. Pollack can be reached at rpollack@fas.harvard.edu.