March 29, 2013

Chaos for all-female Smith College after it rejects a transgender applicant, who's got social media to champion her cause.

"A transgender high school student has had her application to a prestigious all-women's college denied because she is tagged as legally male on government documents, prompting a vocal online and social media campaign on her behalf."
Laurie Fenlason, Smith's vice president for public affairs, said the school does not comment on the status or admissibility of individual applicants. But she added, "Every application to Smith is treated on a case-by-case basis, and application materials must reflect female identity."

Smith also has legal concerns over changing its admissions policies, Fenlason said. Schools such as Smith are concerned they could lose federal funding under Title IX, a law that bans sexual discrimination in education but exempts single-sex institutions.
Female identity... that sounds like they've already worked out the answer for the future. Beyond that, they can't say why they rejected the applicant, Calliope Wong. They're not allowed to talk about that. It's Wong going public, making the claim, enlisting social media in publicizing it.

Students and graduates have taken to social media sites, including the Facebook groups "Trans women belong at Smith College" and "Smith Q&A," to show support.
Here's "Trans women belong at Smith College." Sample comment there: "Our alma mater is being incredibly douchey...."

They're allowed to discriminate against men. They're more discriminatory than most schools. But I guess that's the trouble. Once you start discriminating and draw a line, you have to figure out who's on which side of that line, creating problems non-discriminators don't have.

For example, if you are going to do affirmative action, do you simply accept that people are the race they feel that they are? Actually, it does work out that way! It's surprising there isn't more chaos around that, but that's because once students are admitted, they make their own assumptions about who is what race, and they are never confronted with the admissions materials. So, for example, if Liz got bonus points because her application said she was Native American, and when she joins the student body, she's a blue-eyed blonde, the other students just see the blue-eyed blonde. Meanwhile, the school is happy to show better diversity statistics. Everybody wins. (That is, everybody who's there, in person, now, wins. The losers are unknowns exiled who knows where.)

But if you have a place like Smith, that's all female, everyone on site is quite aware that this is an all-female place, and they'll notice if a non-female makes it past admissions. The entire student body is activated as a check on the admissions people. Some of those students might be inclined towards inclusion of transgender individuals, but some are not. Chaos!
Wong has not undergone the costly reassignment procedure.
Chaos!

121 comments:

Dave said...

" Title IX, a law that bans sexual discrimination in education but exempts single-sex institutions."

Huh...VMI and the Citadel were single-sex institutions. They didn't seem to get any exemption.

dreams said...

Why is Smith College allowed to be all female when West Point, The Cidadel and the Virginia Military Institute were forced to allow females?

gerry said...

If going public is Wong, she doesn't want to be right.

Anonymous said...

Hush, Those were single sex Male schools. Women wanted to get into them. Not a lot of men want to pay that much to go to Smith...

Gender rules, like race rules only go one way.

Anonymous said...

The social engineers among us haven't figured out that when they cut down the pillars of society they also cut off their own legs.

Anonymous said...

OTOH, I enjoy a good blue on blue cat fight. Get more popcorn...

The only additional thing that would be better would be a wading pool filled with Raspsberry jello

Ann Althouse said...

"Huh...VMI and the Citadel were single-sex institutions. They didn't seem to get any exemption."

The VMI case deals with this. There is a footnote preserving these single-sex institutions.

VMI was a unique institution in Virginia and there was no corresponding opportunity for females -- no prestigious leadership program with a long history and connections to be gained. The case makes that the distinction.

Ann Althouse said...

Here's that footnote from the VMI case:

"7 Several amici have urged that diversity in educational opportunities is an altogether appropriate governmental pursuit and that single sex schools can contribute importantly to such diversity. Indeed, it is the mission of some single sex schools "to dissipate, rather than perpetuate, traditional gender classifications." See Brief for Twenty Six Private Women's Colleges as Amici Curiae 5. We do not question the State's prerogative evenhandedly to support diverse educational opportunities. We address specifically and only an educational opportunity recognized by the District Court and the Court of Appeals as "unique," see 766 F. Supp., at 1413, 1432; 976 F. 2d, at 892, an opportunity available only at Virginia's premier military institute, the State's sole single sex public university or college. Cf. Mississippi Univ. for Women v. Hogan, 458 U.S. 718, 720, n. 1 (1982) ("Mississippi maintains no other single sex public university or college. Thus, we are not faced with the question of whether States can provide `separate but equal' undergraduate institutions for males and females.")."

SteveR said...

Its all about feelings, tickets torn in half, souveniers of times and places.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Althouse makes "Chaos" sound like its a bad thing.

YoungHegelian said...

I think that, in solidarity with this oppressed trans-sexual (wo)man. that her supporters should volunteer to have her room with them or one of their daughters.

I mean, why worry? She may have a working set of male genitalia, but she just doesn't see herself that way, ya know?

Anonymous said...

All same sex schools still exist? How old-fashioned. I mean, even if we've been separating the sexes for educational purposes for thousands of years, it's just not right! Discriminiation! Civil rights violation!

Okay, for those of you who don't think that the gays aren't going after private institutions to force them to accept them, you've got a lot to learn.

This guy who who says he identifies as a gal has lots of places to go to college that would warmly welcome him/her, but insists on the one place that won't.

The definition of an asshole is someone who insists on having everything on their own terms. This guy/gal is an asshole.

edutcher said...

She still has THAT chromosome.

Where, O where, are our advocates for equality on this one?

Ann Althouse said...

they can't say why they rejected the applicant, Calliope Wong

He/She can always get a job at Wong Bros Hand Laundry, where Two Wongs Will Make It White.

(thank you, I'm here all week...)

Strelnikov said...

Maybe it was the name: "Calliope Wong". Sounds like a stripper in a carnival show. Also, too close to "Calamity Jane". Either forms a sound basis for rejection.

Strelnikov said...

" The case makes that the distinction."

Which is one of those without a diffwerence.

Unknown said...

Wong has a dong. Case closed.

Strelnikov said...

"Which is one of those without a diffwerence"

Elmer Fudd refernce unintentional.

mrs whatsit said...

"Why is Smith College allowed to be all female when West Point, The Cidadel and the Virginia Military Institute were forced to allow females?"

Smith is a private college. The other schools you mentioned are public institutions, so different rules apply. Whether they SHOULD be different is a separate question.

Dante said...

Related. After college, my (sort of) first girl friend came back as a full fledged lesbian, and brought one of the several (many) girls she flipped while at Smith.

The girlfriend sat me down and started on with her feminist stuff. What I mostly remember is "There are some of us who think we should strike out on our own, and make our communities. But I'm not one of them. I want to go into the male world and change it to the way I want to."

There were several things I found incredibly disgusting about this.

A) She felt she was 100% right: a zealot. Normally I would argue/discuss the issues, but I knew there was zero hope, which meant there was no rationality involved in her statements, only emotion.

B) She, for some reason, hated men, and the world they had built, you know, the one that helped her to go to Smith.

C) The idea that you don't like something, so go and make your own, makes a lot of sense to me. Don't tear other things down, build your own thing.

This still seems to be the prevailing way among so many leftists. Tear down the boy scouts. Tear down the girl scouts. And yes, try to destroy marriage.

Make your own damn marriage.

And yes, Smith ought to be allowed to not have transgenders.

Strelnikov said...


Yes, nothing can promote "diversity" like limiting participation to one group, based solely on that fact the participants belong to the group.

SteveR said...

thank you, I'm here all week

try the veal

Rabel said...

If you want to get into Smith you gotta cut off your Johnson. That's just Wong.

chuck said...

If Smith admitted more maenads the problem of men in disguise would be quickly solved.

Howard said...

What do you expect when the gay get all that now that we let them demand marriage by court fiat. What next? Tranny dogs and cats getting off and in to West Point? Enjoy the decline into Sadomasochism and Gonorrhea librul dweebtards. Thank god my pedophile priest reserved me a spot in heaven with jesus, otherwise I might not be able to watch Fox News anymore.

Strelnikov said...

By the way, I'm not sure that "being slagged on Facebook and/or Twitter = Chaos" is a valid construct.

caseym54 said...

IIRC, Smith College gets away with this by abjuring federal money.

Still, not only are they sexist, but now they are bigots, too!

Unknown said...

Wong has a dong. Case closed.

YoungHegelian said...

Every application to Smith is treated on a case-by-case basis, and application materials must reflect female identity."

I'd love to see the sample questions for the application that reflects female identity:

Question 1: Do you prefer to shop for:

a) shoes
b) power tools

Question 2: When you meet an old friend you haven't seen in a while do say:

a) "Well, hey there, good buddy!"
b) Emit a squeal, the say "Ohhhh Hiiiiiiii! How are you?"

Question 3: Which of these two words do you use the most?

a) thud
b) andante

virgil xenophon said...

I was waiting for someone like gerry@11:32 to say it, and The Drill Sgt at same time-stamp gets to the nub of it all..

Amartel said...

"VMI was a unique institution in Virginia and there was no corresponding opportunity for females -- no prestigious leadership program with a long history and connections to be gained. The case makes that the distinction."

LAME! Go find a similar institution in another state. Can the same case be made for Smith College? Is there a similarly prestigious single sex educational opportunity for males in MA? (Very funny - no, not the prison system.) If this case was made, would it ever be accepted? No.

The rules apply until and unless they do not apply and you won't know whether or not they apply until a court decides. Rinse and repeat until exceptions overrun the rule and/or no one cares about the rules anymore. Chaos!

Alex said...

America turning into sodom & gommorah before our eyes.

Nomennovum said...

Wong place. Wong time.

YoungHegelian said...

America's turning into sodom & gommorah before our eyes.

Not That There's Anything Wong With That.

Rabel said...

"Smith College does not discriminate in its educational and employment policies on the bases of race, color, creed, religion, national/ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, or with regard to the bases outlined in the Veterans Readjustment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act."

virgil xenophon said...

Amatel/

You're too logical and refer overmuch to reality in the real world.. Dunce-cap in the corner-of-the-room you go..

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

If you want to get into Smith you gotta cut off your Johnson. That's just Wong.

I cant believe we are getting beat by a girl.

Anonymous said...

caseym54 said...
IIRC, Smith College gets away with this by abjuring federal money.


Of course they accept Federal funds, why else the FAFSA form?

Nomennovum said...

Didn't Tom Hanks try this type of shit on TV early in his career with a lot more success?

Anonymous said...

Springfield Technical Community College and Smith College have received a five-year $3 million grant to get children interested in engineering.

The grant, awarded by the National Science Foundation, is being used to create interactive web novels that engage children in engineering

Nomennovum said...

It is, however, undeniable that Wong has balls.

Brava! ... er ... bravo! ... uh .. Good for you!!!

tiger said...

Ah the hypocrisy of Liberals/Leftists/Higher Education

MadisonMan said...

I just don't see how not getting into a College you might like is a plight.

If Calliope Wong is admitted to Smith, and as a 20-yo, changes his mind about her identity (Something like this has happened, I'm sure) -- then what? She's been accepted, but suddenly he's in an all-Girls school.

What Smith should do -- if Wong has the grades -- is admit her/him, but offer no scholarships/grants to attend. Take the money and run.

Nomennovum said...

Smith and Barnard are two prestigious universities that are women only. As someone pointed out, West Point and VMI were made to admit women. As was also pointed out, the courts drew a "distinction" in the case of VMI. That it what we pay lawyers and judges to do. And, sometimes, justice occurs.

I'm too occupied to google and I can't think of any prestigious all-men universities off-hand. I am sure they exist, because fairness.

Trashhauler said...

"VMI was a unique institution in Virginia and there was no corresponding opportunity for females -- no prestigious leadership program with a long history and connections to be gained."

Those of us who attended those bastions of male privilege can testify to how much they've changed since women began attending. Before, the places emphasized sacrifice, hardship, and service. Now, in many ways, you might as well go to Ohio State.

lgv said...

As a pre-op, if she likes women, is she a lesbian or a heterosexual?

If she preferred one gender for a sexual partner and not the other, could she still be classified as a bi-sexual? Or would her partner automatically be a bi-sexual?

It's all so confusing. They need a four year major strictly on this whole subject.

Methadras said...

So stupid. You can mutilate yourself, change your gender identity, do any sort of parlor trick to make it appear you are of the opposite sex, but you can never change your gender.

Nomennovum said...

Aren't we all pre-ops? Sounds like Smith did the right thing. Wong ain't nothing but a glorified transvestite. A faker.

Rabel said...

"They need a four year major strictly on this whole subject."

OK

Nomennovum said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nomennovum said...

Stop hoisting people on their own petards, Rabel.

Anonymous said...

MadisonMan said...
What Smith should do -- if Wong has the grades -- is admit her/him, but offer no scholarships/grants to attend. Take the money and run.


What they should do is suggest Wong enroll at UMass Amhurst and take advantage of cross-enrollment to get the Smith experience :)

Bender said...

Come on people. Sex and gender are now self-decreed. Reality itself is determined solely by our will.

Just as we are all Spartacus, so too can we all be female. All of us. Merely by saying so, by having our own concept of meaning in the universe.

We all can be female, even those who say so because they have chopped off their wongs. Even those of us who still have wongs and who occasionally use them to have sex with other females, we too are female if we say so.

We are no longer subject to the tyranny of truth! We are no longer shackled to the dictatorship of reality! Make your own truth. Make your own reality. That fruit which you have eaten gives you the power to be gods!

Nomennovum said...

Look, this is really uninteresting, when you come right down to it. Wong is a trumped-up tranny. However, this does lead to an interesting question:

What would Smith do with an otherwise qualified candidate who is a hermaphrodite?

My guess is rejection because of the dick thing. Eew!

Christopher said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Christopher said...

Back when I was blogging regularly at PostWatch, I did a lot of stuff on single-gender and Title IX issues. I like to remind people that there are many more women-only than male-only colleges, which I think should have been taken into account in the VMI case. Yes, the analysis Althouse quotes is not insane per se if you focus on being a resident of Virginia, but the opportunities for women nationally far outrank those for men. Single-gender institutions have been dwindling for a long time, but the ratio is still crazy. A quick check of wiki counts 60 women-only colleges and I am seeing the same/similar number in a 2009 USA Today story (sorry, in a rush). Wiki has 5 male-only, and another recent story counts 4. And AFAIK most/all of the women-only (and probably men-only) schools take federal funds, through scholarships and other programs, so all us guys are helping to pay for institutions we or our male kids could never attend. Lots of ways to look at this, but these are the fun facts.

Bender said...

All of you anti-choicers not only want to deny her admission to this school, you probably also want to deny her the freedom of choice in her own body to have an abortion if she wants.

Her body, her choice, you jerks.

rcommal said...

tagged as legally male on government documents

Huh. Helluva phrase there.

So, Wong is being discriminated against by being "tagged as legally male on government documents." Honestly, the mind reels. What implications might this have if every person in the country who is "tagged as legally male on government documents" claimed discrimination? How interesting might that situation be?

Shanna said...

Smith is still all female?

Every time I hear anything about the college I always think of Danny Kaye in White Christmas saying 'so she didn't go to college, she didn't go to smith'.

rcommal said...

I wonder if there is any person currently enrolled at Smith, which would mean--yes?--that person is "tagged as legally female on government documents," who is transgender in the opposite direction. Should Wong end up admitted to Smith, how ought the other person be dealt with? Ought that person be expelled?

I meant it when I said that, faced with the phrase "tagged as legally male on government documents," the mind reels... !

Shanna said...

Cf. Mississippi Univ. for Women v. Hogan, 458 U.S. 718, 720, n. 1 (1982) ("Mississippi maintains no other single sex public university or college.

Would that be the ‘W’? My grandmother went there! Of course, that was a good long while ago. Had no idea they were still an all women's school.

rcommal said...

"Smith is focusing on the broader policy challenge of how to be inclusive and supportive of transgender students while being faithful to the mission of a women's college."

I note this part of Smith's response.

So, there are ongoing efforts to be inclusive and supportive of current students at all-female Smith who identify as transgender, which one would think by definition means that there are students who do actually self-identify as male.

Huh. How does this work, exactly?

Rabel said...

"Would that be the ‘W’? My grandmother went there! Of course, that was a good long while ago. Had no idea they were still an all women's school."

Yes, but they're no longer female only.

chickelit said...

What would Scotus do?

Unknown said...

What if a man applies claiming that he is a woman who identifies an extremely butch lesbian. Let's say he presents as a fairly typical 18 year old boy--scruffy beard, smelly feet, loves the Dallas Cowboys, plays video games, watches porn, etc. What then?

Shanna said...

Yes, but they're no longer female only.

Ah, OK. Thanks!

traditionalguy said...

Normal life under a benevolent Patriarchy of ore seems so sensible now.

Will the men who are women have to become eunuchs?

Or maybe bi-sexuals of either sex can do as they please on odd numbered days and chose to smoke on even numbered days. That seems to be the best rule in hopes that the eternal victims will finally close up shop get a life.

Dante said...

From Rabel's OK link:

Queer studies is an emerging interdisciplinary field which goal is to analyze antinormative sexual identities, performances, discourses and representations in order ultimately to destabilize the notion of normative sexuality and gender.

How can this be studying? It's merely trying to push a position. This isn't truth seeking.

I can imagine whoever came up with this would stop at the sanctity of the first amendment.

Bender said...

You don't get it Al -- she's a woman!

That scruffy, smelly, Cowboy loving, porn watching, gamer is a woman if she says so.

She is a woman on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays if she says so, and he is a man on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays if he says so. And on Sundays, she/he is mixed if so decreed. Occasionally, on special holidays, she/he/it is also a Jewphin merely by declaring it to be so.

Bender said...

Truth is not sought. Truth is not discovered. It is created. And then imposed.

It is not about reality. It is about power.

And to think that those ignorant backwards religionists of 3000-4000 years ago already had that figured out in writing about the Tree of Knowledge.

Steve Koch said...

The upside is that this really clarifies the way out from gov sponsored racial and gender discrimination against white males, just claim you are not male and not white, since you can be anything you want to be. Might as well claim to be gay at the same time just to be safe.

Unknown said...

I have another question about the transgendered. When a man says that he feels like a woman, how can he confirm that his feeling is empirically related to the actual feeling of womanhood. You can't objectively know what it feels like to be a woman unless you have actually been a woman. A man can only subjectively believe that he feels like a woman. But, he could be wrong, couldn't he?

RichardS said...

The section on democracy in Book 8 of Plato's Republic may be one of the best commentaries on our times. In a democracy, the mind is ruled by the idea of equality. Any inequality, caused by nature or convention, is assumed to be unacceptable.

Steve Koch said...

Dante said: "How can this be studying?"

Dante, when lefties are long marching through institutions, the original purpose of that institution is subordinated to lefty goals. For example, if you are a constitutional lawyer, instead of focusing on understanding the constitution, you focus on working around the constitution and subverting it so you can use it to find constitutional rights for gay marriage, abortion, affirmative action (examples chosen to be relevant to "constitutional" lawyer who runs this blog).

On the left, it is all about securing governmental privileges for privileged interest groups (PIGs).

chickelit said...

Any inequality, caused by nature or convention, is assumed to be unacceptable.

I wonder if eventually they'll get around to fighting some of nature's fundamental inequalities.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
campy said...

Wong rejected on account of wang.

n.n said...

What are the political, legal, and social criteria to change genders? Is there a minimum time limit that confusion must be sustained?

For example: If I want to enter a woman's locker room, would it be sufficient to feign confusion for 10 minutes, 1 hour before the act? How long would the confused period need to be sustained in order to receive equal protection? Would I be allowed to repeat the experiment at will?

What is the standard for "transgender" applicants? Does it consider physiological differences other than internal and external sex organs? Are claims of confusion sufficient to receive equal protection?

Why isn't there a demand for confused-sex marriage (csm)?

Why do we still discriminate between sexual and platonic relationships?

Why do we still discriminate between a diversity of numbers, combinations, and kinds?

We live in interesting times.

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of two very liberal college friends whose daughter is engaged to a lovely young guy, who as it turns out considers himself transgenedered and is seriously considering going all the way with surgery.

My friends aren't happy with this, but they are hoisted by their own progressive petard. They have no choice but to accept their daughter's future spouse as is. They do want to make sure some of his sperm is stored to keep open the possibility of children.

Interestingly enough, their daughter has chosen partners like this before and thus seems to be part of the situation.

Bob said...

Single gender schools, why? The service academies and state military academies were all gender integrated. These schools receive federal funding, either directly or indirectly. Historically black colleges have accepted non-black applicants. So again, why? I thought women wanted equality.

Bob said...

Single gender schools, why? The service academies and state military academies were all gender integrated. These schools receive federal funding, either directly or indirectly. Historically black colleges have accepted non-black applicants. So again, why? I thought women wanted equality.

Synova said...

Change the entrance requirements to say "female sex" instead of gender.

campy said...

I thought women wanted equality.

They do. You just need to understand what they mean by equality.

It's sort of like what you think of as superiority, but even better.

jr565 said...

If Kobe Bryant had a sex change tomorrow should he be able to join women's basketball the day after tomorrow?
Even if his psyche were female he would still have a mans body and all the inherent advantages that a male of his size and stature would have over women. He would be running the floor with the entire league.

Therefore artificially making men into women should not allow them to join a woman's sports team, since they aren't really women it would be like allowing one person in the league to take steroids while banning steroids for everyone else, simply because of their gender.

My rule is, if you don't have a uterus you can't play women's basketball, even if a doctor chopped off your pens.

Sam L. said...

A guy could meet some babes at Smith. Serious babes. Seriously stuck-up babes.

So LGBGTQ goes anywhere to cause trouble. Life happens.

Anonymous said...

So there is this all powerful male Patriarchy, why do all these males want to cut off their wangs and become oppressed?

jr565 said...

The fastest 100m for men is like 9.6 seconds.the fastest 100m for women is like 11.7 seconds or so, a few seconds slower.

So then, any man who ran 100m in 10.5 seconds, by no means the fastest in the world, could beat all women by a full second if he had a sex change and was able to run as a woman.

That is ridiculous. A sex change is not a real sex change. It's putting on fake body parts on your existing sex. If you re a man you won't ever have a uterus, and if you are a women witha uterus, if a doctor gives you a penis, you'll still have a uterus.

Icepick said...

Another example of lawyers trying to make a word mean its opposite, once again in the interests of 'fairness'. Now men can be women and women can be men.

jr565 said...

A whereas if you had the best female runner in the world and she had a sex change operation, and tried competing as a man, she's be a fast, but not exceptionally fast man. Why would a woman downgrade herself like that, as a competing athlete.

It really only works for men who become women.
In my view though they are cheating if they try to compete as the opposite sex

the wolf said...

I believe Calliope's case will crash to the ground.

SGT Ted said...

When a man says that he feels like a woman, how can he confirm that his feeling is empirically related to the actual feeling of womanhood. You can't objectively know what it feels like to be a woman unless you have actually been a woman.

Here:

http://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/02/surgical-sex--35

Hee's some actual science, rather than 'feelings'. It undercuts the trans indentity arguments.

jr565 said...

We have to remember that thinking you are a different sex is a disorder. We should not treat disorders as normative, and withold judgement. We should treat it as a disorder.

That doesn't mean I hate the person who is trying to get a six change. I have a lot of sympathy for,them actually and look on them with pity. How could someone be so unhappy in their body that they want to chop off their sexual organs?

It's a horrible thing. I hope we can find a cure other than validating the idea that they should chop off their body parts.

Here's a case of people who had a sex change, didn't like their new sex, and then had another sex change to change back.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1327554/Charles-Kane-sex-change--hated-Samantha-man-Now-hes-getting-married-So-fiancee-crazy.html

Perhaps doctors shouldn't be so quick to have chopped off his penis to begin with.

Steve Koch said...

Non lefties should overwhelm affirmative action by claiming membership in lefty PIGs. Hispanic is a good "race" (not that it is really a race) to claim because anybody can claim to be an Hispanic. Transgender seems to be the way to go wrt gender privileged interest groups because you don't have to get a sex change operation to claim to be a transgender. Why not push for transgender marriage?

Real American said...

chopping your dick off doesn't make you a woman. it makes you insane.

Hagar said...

Judge rejects divorce for
transgender pregnant man
Associated Press, by Staff Original Article
Posted By: NorthernDog- 3/29/2013 2:24:59 PM Post Reply
PHOENIX — An Arizona judge on Friday refused to grant a divorce for a transgender Arizona man who gave birth to three children after beginning to change his sex from female. Maricopa County Family Court Judge Douglas Gerlach ruled that Arizona´s ban on same-sex marriages prevents Thomas Beatie´s nine-year union from being recognized as valid. Thomas Beatie was born a woman and underwent a double-mastectomy but retained female reproductive organs and gave birth to three children. Gerlach said he had no jurisdiction to approve a divorce because there´s insufficient evidence

jr565 said...

Hagar fired the following:
Thomas Beatie was born a woman and underwent a double-mastectomy but retained female reproductive organs and gave birth to three children

if you still have female reproductive organs you're female. More importantly though, doctors are giving peopl like this when they have nothing wrong with their breasts?

I can see if you want say a nose job, but a mastectomy seems extreme.

Browndog said...

Transgender 'pregnant man' can't divorce, Arizona judge rules

Beatie is eager to end his marriage, but the couple's divorce plans stalled last summer when Gerlach said he was unable to find legal authority defining a man as someone who can give birth.

DADvocate said...

chopping your dick off doesn't make you a woman. it makes you insane.

Yup.

But, but, there's a woman trapped in that male body just yearning to get out. (My woman is trapped in a pit in my crawl space.)

Kirk Parker said...

Chuck @ 11:46am,

Yeah, a little omophagia goes a long way, doesn't it?

Kirby Olson said...

Wong sounds like a dick.

Kirby Olson said...

Wong sounds like a dick.

MB said...

the wolf said...

I believe Calliope's case will crash to the ground.

3/29/13, 2:39 PM


Now I've got that song stuck in my head.

Anonymous said...

How about we give the left everything it wants on sexual equality no holds barred, BUT we get a complete ban on abortion.

exhelodrvr1 said...

What does Mr. Garrison think about this?

Anonymous said...

bpm4532 said...
How about we give the left everything it wants on sexual equality no holds barred, BUT we get a complete ban on abortion.


I'm enough of a Libertarian to be fine with that as long as:
- I don't have to pay for it,
- my insurance doesnt have to pay, and
- my taxes dont pay

Lydia said...

Synova said...
Change the entrance requirements to say "female sex" instead of gender.

Good idea, but I think that's a lost cause. I do believe the "gender feminists" have carried the day.

Æthelflæd said...

Seems like cosmic justice. If Title IX is the downfall of Smith, the irony will be too, too delicious.

TomHynes said...

Smith has male graduates - they entered as females and transitioned while there.

My wife of 36 years is a Smithie, class of '76. She was also an NCAA softball player, and still claims to be heterosexual.

Rich Rostrom said...

Gender dysphoria is a real condition, not a fetish or delusion. Change of gender is a suitable response.

It's still a freak condition, and the insistance of sex radicals that society must accommodate as a variant of normality is absurd.

Wong may "identify as a woman", but physically he is male. Until ths surgery is complete, he's a freak, and cannot be accommodated as a normal person.

Nor should Wong be able to demand that institutions validate his "identification" until he makes it real, where such validation represents significant costs (in this case, invasion of the privacy and security of the other students).

Because there are "transsexuals" who are fetishists or delusional.

Bender said...

"Change of gender" may or may not be a suitable response, but genital mutilation is hardly a proper response.

It is no more proper than to purposely cut out someone's eyeballs if they insist that, although they can see, they are really a blind person stuck in a seeing person's body.

Mountain Maven said...

Hoisted by their own petard

lonetown said...

Smith girls are NOT that kind of girl!

lonetown said...

Smith girls are NOT that kind of girl!

ken in tx said...

The Mississippi University For Women case is interesting to me because a lawyer I once hired was the first guy to be enrolled there. He wanted a nursing degree to better pursue medical malpractice suits. Later, I threatened to sue him to get my money back from his own malpractice. It worked. I hired an ex-Air Force JAG to sue him.

ken in tx said...

Normally lawyers will not bring malpractice suits against one another, but it happened that these two guys hated each other. They were former partners who had a falling out.

David said...

This is a very important matter.

It enables people to avoid thinking about poverty and inadequate education for millions of Americans.

Lawyer Mom said...

"You make me feel like a natural woman." Damn, but Carol King was prescient.

This is a no-brainer. I'm with @Bender. Just re-define female. It couldn't be simpler.

And we're in such excellent company. Elizabeth Warren, who unilaterally re-defined Indian, will surely get behind this self-defining movement.

Let everyone self-define his or her race, gender, orientation -- you name it! -- for college applications, minority loans, tax breaks, whatever! We're in a transracial, transgender, trans-truth world, baby. It's only fair.

See ya' later, archaic OED.

Clyde said...

Sorry, Wong number.

hawkeyedjb said...

We live in a wonderful country, one in which this kind of shit is important. Do you think North Koreans worry about this sort of thing?

Strelnikov said...

"Normally lawyers will not bring malpractice suits against one another,"


One of my partners spends most of his practice defending lawyers in malpractice suits. Believe me, lawyers do not have a problem suing other lawyers. Provided there's money to be made, of course.

Art said...

Stupid question. My sons have gotten dozens of either non-acceptance or wait list letters from colleges. NOT A SINGLE ONE STATED A REASON. How would this person know why they were not admitted?

Peter said...

They don't seem to understand the difference between sex and gender.

If they insisted that all Smith students had to be feminine as well as female, they'd have to throw many of their students out of school.

As someone remarked, Wong has a dong, case closed. Is all-female Smith to be required to consider candidates who are feminine males?

How can supposedly smart people be so confused about the difference between sex and gender?