Greek Life Discrimination
I have spoken at length to people in the Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL) Community about transgender people in the Greek community. Different organizations have different policies. It is becoming more widely accepted to allow trans men to join fraternities and trans women to join sororities, particularly locally. Local chapters at Universities generally are not discriminating, regardless of National policies.
Disclaimer:
I’m not writing this as a call out to individual chapters, rather the national organization and specific people that proposed this policy.
This criticism is extended to every Greek Organization that bans transgender people from their organizations and creates exclusionary policies that make discrimination more prominent nationwide.
I am not speaking on behalf of any organization I am a part of (SAEPi or MGC), nor am I speaking on behalf of University of Cincinnati Greek Life. I am merely doing my best to deal with upsetting news and work through it for my own sake, and to document my thoughts, feelings, and perspectives.
Even with local university support, it’s important to recognize that Greek Life is gendered. It is based in the binary with the assumption that people are male and female, woman and man, brother and sister. Fundamentally it ignores the in-between. In itself, that is not bad. There is something to be said for creating a brotherhood or sisterhood that uplifts one another and strives to make them the best versions of themselves. Historically, however, that is not what they have been used for.
Fraternities and Sororities have a long history of discrimination, hazing, and exclusion. Zeta Phi Beta was created to counter that culture in some ways. Traditionally black Fraternities and Sororities, Jewish Fraternities and Sororities, Multicultural Fraternities and Sororities, Asian Interest, Latino, etc - were all created out of the exclusion of their respective communities from the historic FSL organizations. These have also been some of the organizations at the forefront of the LGBTQ inclusion movement in Fraternity and Sorority Life Communities.
What does Zeta Phi Beta’s policy mean, and why is it important?
A traditionally Black sorority banning trans women from joining fundamentally disregards the history they came from and creates an organization of exclusion. The sorority was founded on the desire to create a community for black women, when so often they are unwelcome in other spaces.
Violence
The policy says that while upholding their ideals of diversity, they will not allow women who are not cisgender to enter Zeta Phi Beta. This comes at a time when transgender women of color are some of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups in the country, and face daily violence and threats. Opening doors to give trans women community not only begins to foster inclusion of this marginalized community in broader society, but also protects them from threats of violence by giving them friendships and sisterhood.
Suicide
Sororities are fundamentally meant to be a place of community creation. When trans people come out, oftentimes they are completely ostracised from all other parts of their lives. 50% of transgender youth commit suicide after their family, friends, schools, etc, tell them they are not accepted. Zeta Phi Beta is giving transgender women of color one more community they are not welcome in, and potentially making it possible for suicide rates to become higher due to the lack of community trans people have access to.
Nationally
Currently, transgender people are being written out of documents at organizations like the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, and others. These departments have quietly rewritten guidelines to suggest that men and women are born one gender and never able to change it. This has also made it possible for the administration to tell insurance and healthcare agencies to deny care to transgender patients.
While these policies do not cause or correlate the Zeta Phi Beta Policy, the national debate over the inclusion of transgender people informs how organizations choose to treat trans people. The fact that Zeta Phi Beta is subscribing to this exclusion does not equate the sorority with the Trump Administration, but it is a striking similarity that highlights why this policy and diversity statement are fundamentally against what Zeta Phi Beta stands for as a Traditionally Black Sorority.
What it means to me, personally.
I am a transgender member of a Jewish Greek Life organization. When I came out, there were a few other transgender members nationally. My sorority, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi, made a national change in policy to include transgender women and nonbinary/agender individuals. I have never felt more accepted and more a part of a community as when I heard about this change. Not only is there research to show trans people need community for their own safety, but I have personal experience to know how important it really is. As a nonbinary person in Greek Life, I am incredibly disappointed in a traditionally marginalized group further excluding another marginalized community.