Female college admits men who identify as women

[LONDONER]

Thought this might be of interest to all the transgender members.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014...z3BQEqFT00

[Iceblink]

"Men who identify as women?"

Kind of odd wording, but then again it is from the conservative Washington Times.

I don't like this line from the article at all, "Twenty-four years after students beat back a move to go co-ed, all-female Mills College is officially admitting men, as long as they identify as women." There's bias and snark in that writing.

[AdamAndWill]

"Men who identify as women?"

Kind of odd wording, but then again it is from the conservative Washington Times.

I don't like this line from the article at all, "Twenty-four years after students beat back a move to go co-ed, all-female Mills College is officially admitting men, as long as they identify as women." There's bias and snark in that writing.

(Adam) Agreed. I'm not quite sure exactly what irritates me so much about this article, except that I feel like it trivializes transgender people and their struggles.

[Cuddly]

The article does strike me as offensive. The school however seems to have the right intentions.

[AdamAndWill]

The article does strike me as offensive. The school however seems to have the right intentions.

(Adam) I definitely agree that the school was acting on good intentions --- my issue is with the phrasing in the article.

[Iceblink]

The problem with the words in the article is that is saying these people are men. If they identify as women, they are women, not "men who identify as women." Of course you can't write an article on this subject and keep saying something like "persons who were born biologically a male but identify as women" over and over again as it would just get too wordy, but we have a word to use in this in this circumstance, "transgender" and it is not offensive and much shorter than saying "men who identify as women."

[Cuddly]

The problem with the words in the article is that is saying these people are men. If they identify as women, they are women, not "men who identify as women." Of course you can't write an article on this subject and keep saying something like "persons who were born biologically a male but identify as women" over and over again as it would just get too wordy, but we have a word to use in this in this circumstance, "transgender" and it is not offensive and much shorter than saying "men who identify as women."

Yes.. but what's the right thing to say? Transgender women?

[Iceblink]

Yes.. but what's the right thing to say? Transgender women?

The correct thing to say is how the person identifies. A few months ago there was a debate about this on HuffPost gay voices of transgender women (and I say that because that is how they identified themselves) upset with much of the media still referring to them as men or male. The problem with this was it brought out some transgender people who were born male but now dressed and lived what would appear to most of us to be women, but they still identified at male. I learned something new because like most others I had assumed the correct think to do was to refer to them as transgender women. I guess the thing to do is to just not assign the gender for a transgender person if you do not know. If you are talking about a group of transgender people in a general discussion like this with no specific person in mind, I think the correct thing to do is just say transgender people or transgender persons. If you have a person in mind but do not know how the person identifies, just say transgender person. If it is a person that has come into your life and you will be seeing regularly like a new friend or a coworker, you will eventually learn through day to day conversation with the person how they identify. It sure is difficult today, especially since when discussing a person we are so accustomed to using "he," "she," "him," "his," "her."