Would you pledge a transsexual?
 

First off, this is nothing I've personally confronted, I was just idly wondering about it the other day.

Scenario 1 - Pre-Op
Say your GLO had a rushee who was anatomically of the opposite gender from the gender of your GLO (i.e. a male rushing a sorority) but was living as a (insert gender), taking drugs, and planned eventually to have the operation - all other things being equal, would you pledge this person?

Scenario 2 - Post-Op
Say your GLO had a rushee who was anatomically of your gender, but only because they'd recently undergone sex-reassignment surgery - all other things being equal, would you pledge this person?

Not this again......:rolleyes:

I do not care to check anatomy. A transman is a man and I have no issues welcoming one into my fraternity. I wrote about this on my blog earlier this year.

LOL, sorry, have we already been here? I'm new. :o

An advantage of being in a co-ed fraternity is that we get asked this question less. :)

Agreed.

I would absolutely initiate any male-identified individual if they fit the ideals of my Fraternity. I have fought on my campus for this. I could care less if someone has my same parts or not.

Yes.... a time or two.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...=142098&page=2
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...d.php?t=126924
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...d.php?t=103334
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...d.php?t=117019
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...d.php?t=111247
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...t=88559&page=3

For the record, I would not under any circumstances pledge a pre-operative transsexual, due to the significant liability that would come having a single (anatomical) female living in a private home occupied by 40-90 young men.

As for a post-op transsexual, I would say I would not pledge such a person, however, I also think I'm open to having my mind changed on this point. (Frankly, I would need a better understanding of transsexual psychology.)

Many (most) fraternity houses don't have 90 people in them.

And what part of "living as a man" do you not get? He's not going to be running around in a bra and pantyhose with a purse. Are you saying that men are such animals that they would rape someone whose anatomy fits? If so, housemothers need to all get pepper spray.

I could leave an open bucket of sulfuric acid inside the front door to my fraternity and trust the good judgment of everyone in my house not to playfully splash it on each other. But there's no reason to do that. The unrealized danger of placing an open bucket of sulfuric acid inside the front door - as tiny as it may be - outweighs the benefit to the fraternity of having sulfuric acid laying about.

The eff is a housemother?

Let us pause to consider the plight of these poor men who simply cannot control themselves to not rape and splash sulfuric acid upon one another.

I've never used the word "rape." The previous poster ran in here, waving her arms in the air and screaming the R-word. So you'll have to address that question to her.

My concern is for the violation of the other pledges. For instance, in my house we had group showers. Would it be right for me to assume that all of this individual's pledge brothers would be comfortable showering with an anatomical woman?

Houses are shuttered all the time for hazing on charges of compelling pledges to be nude in front of members of the opposite sex. If my pledges showed up on move-in day and were informed that, in order to perform basic human hygiene functions, they would be required to expose themselves to an anatomical woman, what risk would be assuming? Fraternities operate on a razor-edge in the current environment. There doesn't need to be an intention of ill-will, anything that offers even a whiff of suspicion can be used to close a chapter. Any situation that, after being retold 12 times, can evolve into something iffy-sounding when it's splashed across the front page of the campus newspaper should not be a situation in which one should voluntarily choose to place their house. You can howl at the sky and bemoan that all you want, I suppose, but you sound pretty wild-eyed and reckless when you do.

Just because there are group showers, doesn't mean a group has to shower in them. (Does ANY fraternity have this nowadays? Were there no curtains or what?)

And do you seriously not know what a housemother is?

You've never heard of a gang shower? Have you ever been to a gym?

And if 80% of the house has a 9:30 class, yeah, groups do shower together unless you don't want anyone sitting next to you in your POLI SCI 201 lecture.

I've seen housemothers in composite photos from the 30s and 40s. I didn't know they still existed anywhere, or what they did when they did exist. And I don't know a single other fraternity or sorority on my campus which had one; we had close to 40 residential GLOs with housed memberships ranging from ~20 to 100 (the latter in the case of SAEs and TEKEs).

Maybe they still have them at like Christian or religious GLOs or something?