Sororities to allow all female-identifying students to rush

[clemsongirl]

So I actually have some second-hand experience with this-a friend had two transgender women register for recruitment when she was Panhellenic president at a school very different from my own. The first girl dropped out before recruitment started, but the second was set on continuing and so the following things happened:

-Panhel prez had to call each of the national orgs on her campus (none of the ones at Brown) and ask what their specific membership policy was with regards to transgender women. Some said they would allow anyone who identified as female to receive a bid, while others said they would only allow biological women to join.
-Panhel prez had to inform the PNM that she would be cut by chapters she could not receive a bid from after the first round, same as if she didn't make a minimum GPA for some chapters but not others. She was never told which chapters could not take her.
-She did receive some invites but was eventually cut by all chapters-according to my friend she wasn't the most stellar PNM in terms of grades, involvement, etc anyways so it's not as though sororities were passing on an otherwise superstar PNM because of her biological gender.

Originally Posted by 33girl

How on earth are the national hqs going to know anyway?

If a woman is still legally male and has not changed her name legally the HQ might see an obviously-gendered name on their roster and ask questions.

I disagree wholeheartedly that the national orgs will just let Brown chapters do whatever they want. I applaud their move to inclusivity but it's wishful thinking on their part if there's any pushback whatsoever from their nationals to think they can keep a girl nationals won't allow and not run into trouble. Also incredibly silly that their Panhellenic president just assumed there's no way to know what nationals thinks. If she called them she would definitely have gotten answers, even if she didn't like them.

[amillionlights]

Originally Posted by clemsongirl

-She did receive some invites but was eventually cut by all chapters-according to my friend she wasn't the most stellar PNM in terms of grades, involvement, etc anyways so it's not as though sororities were passing on an otherwise superstar PNM because of her biological gender.

This is where I foresee there being more problems than anything else. I agree that trans women are women and I would support my organization welcoming them with open arms into membership! But my concern would be that, especially with all NPC membership selection processes being private, it could get into a very sticky situation. It would take one less-than-stellar PNM being dropped from recruitment to go on Twitter and say they were dropped for being trans before the entire Greek system was raked over the coals.

That's NOT to say that all trans PNMs would do that, but if someone did, I feel like it would be blown out of proportion and all Greeks would be made by the media to look like transphobic idiots when, in reality, we have membership standards we uphold for every PNM, cisgendered or transgendered. What's the solution? I'm not sure. And do I think this is reason enough to not allow trans students to participate in recruitment? No. I think we'd really have to work on making sure all PNMs feel welcomed to kind of avoid them feeling like they were singled out for being trans.