US — New York. On March 10, the New York State Attorney General proudly announced that the state has made it simple and easy for children to select the sex that appears on their birth certificates. On the same date, a renowned university in New York City disclosed a new mixed-sex housing policy that will effect students who reside on campus during the upcoming academic year.

New York State Attorney General Leticia James at a November 19, 2019 press conference (Credit: Lucas Jackson / Reuters)

“Effective immediately, transgender individuals born in New York will have the right to make this deeply personal decision without the government’s unwarranted denial or without having their privacy violated,” New York Attorney General Letitia James announced last Tuesday. “We will not allow an outdated policy to stop us from providing every individual with equal dignity and respect.”

The law came about as a result of MHW v. Cuomo, a federal lawsuit filed against the state of New York by Lambda Legal on behalf of a girl from Ithaca who identifies as a boy. Lambda Legal is a national organization that litigates for the LGBTQ and those living with HIV.

The new legal policy moves prior safeguards, which required a person seeking to change a birth certificate’s sex marker to be at least 18, to have undergone gender-affirming cosmetic surgical procedures, and present a notarized affidavit from a physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner confirming that the applicant had undergone the cosmetic surgical procedures. Transgender activists had decried the previous legal policies as an invasive violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which established federal guidelines to protect individuals’ medical records and other personal health information.

Major media outlets like the Dallas Voice and Forbes applauded the change, with headlines declaring it an opportunity for minors to “correct sex markers” and to “[make] life better for trans kids.”

However, many women on social media have long been expressing concerns about legal policies that allow self-identification of sex.

A feminist posted on Facebook,

Not being able to change your official identification documents to a fiction is not discrimination. Sex is a biological reality, and there are a lot of reasons we need accurate records of it. How people started accepting the idea that sex is assigned for anyone except the rare intersex individual with ambiguous external genitalia, I do not know, but it gives me a headache and really needs to stop.

Many women on social media are asking, how will women’s and girls’ human rights – which are encoded in law based on sex – be safeguarded? If any male can become legally female, how would the law guarantee women’s right to have male people excluded from such sex-specific spaces as public showers, locker rooms, shelter refuges, hospital wings, prisons and sports designated for members of the female sex? How will we keep accurate crime statistics, and records of the way medical conditions, symptoms and treatments affect differently sexed bodies?

Keith Eldredge, Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center, said that he hoped the change would “make students feel more safe in their living environment.” (Credit: Elizabeth H Landry / The Observer)

That same Tuesday, Fordham University announced that, following a five-year debate with student groups that advocate for transgender and non-binary students, the prestigious institution will move from a policy of offering room assignments based on sex to basing room assignments on “students’ gender identities” for the 2020-2021 academic year.

In the past, transgender-identifying students at Fordham had been offered placement in single rooms in McMahon Hall. However, the campus groups United Student Government, Rainbow Alliance and The Positive began advocating for all restrooms and residence halls to be converted to mixed-sex, and for students to be permitted to choose the names that appear on their official Fordham documents. The activism reached a crescendo in 2018, with a transgender rally at which student activists accused Fordham University of “enforcing transphobic policies that isolate and put transgender and gender non-confirming students at risk.”

The university partially caved under the pressure, deciding to allow students to be housed with members of the sex with which they identify. However, the transgender advocacy groups claim the policy, which they say moves from “sex-segregated” to “gender-segregated,” does not go far enough:

Non-binary folks are still going to be put in vulnerable situations in this process, which won’t be resolved until there is gender-neutral housing — meaning anyone of any gender can live with anyone of any gender. Fordham is not willing to make that choice at this time despite students’ persistence that it is the safest for students of all genders. I hope to see this enacted in coming years, as it is crucial to the safety of students in navigating the already confusing and stressful process of securing housing.

Margaret Cohen, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’20, member of The Positive

US Department of Education Data on Reported Sexual Assaults at Jesuit Universities

Fordham University has not given word on how the new housing policy is expected to effect female students, particularly in light of federal data released in 2014, which exposed Fordham University’s as doing the worst amongst Jesuit universities in the number of on-campus sex offense claims and the handling of them. Furthermore, Fordham University faced a scandal in August 2017 when Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students at Rose Hill, Christopher Rodgers, was placed under investigation after moving female students who were in training to become Resident Assistants to tears during a training session when he presented a controversial video questioning the validity of university rape allegations.

Action: To let your voice be heard,

Contact the following on the issue of allowing individuals to change factual information from fact-based records:

Letitia James

Mail: Office of the Attorney General, The Capitol, Albany, NY 12224-0341

Phone: 1-800-771-7755

Press Office Email: [email protected]

Contact Form: Send an Email

Complaint Form: File a Complaint

Contact the following to express your views of students at Fordham being compelled into mixed-sex campus housing:

Keith Eldredge, Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students

140 West 62nd Street, Room G33

New York, NY 10023

Phone: 212-636-6250

Fax: 212-636-7987

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @dk_eldredge

Read more on this story Following trans teen’s suit, minors can now change New York birth certificates

NBC News

New York State will now allow transgender minors to change the gender marker on their birth certificates to reflect their gender identity, instead of their sex assigned at birth. Five Years Later, Gender-Inclusive Housing Options Announced

Fordham Observer

After a five-year debate about the rights and safety of transgender and gender non-conforming students, Fordham College Lincon Center (FCLC) announced that it will offer gender-neutral housing to its residents for the upcoming 2020-21 academic year.