{"id":3700,"date":"2021-04-19T17:04:12","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T21:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=3700"},"modified":"2021-04-21T10:39:08","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T14:39:08","slug":"trans-cuny-town-hall-resurrected-after-two-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2021\/04\/trans-cuny-town-hall-resurrected-after-two-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Trans CUNY Town Hall Resurrected After Two Years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“File:NPP NATIONAL PROGRESS PARTY FLAG 4.jpg” by User:torbakhopper is licensed with CC BY-SA 3.0.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Less than five months into the year, 2021 <\/span>broke the record<\/span><\/a> for most anti-transgender legislation ever filed. Bills proposed in South Carolina, Texas, Michigan and many other states attempt to limit or ban transgender people from access to medical care and prevent transgender women and girls from participating in sports.<\/span><\/p>\n

When CUNY student Nicholas Cevoli brainstormed ideas to advocate for the trans community as part of his internship at Brooklyn College, he thought to revive<\/span> Trans CUNY<\/span><\/a> Town Hall.<\/span><\/p>\n

The town hall met only once before <\/span>in Oct. 2019<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it would wake up some people who might not be aware of what\u2019s happening or may have forgotten,\u201d said Cevoli. \u201cI wanted this to be loud.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The two-hour event took place last Wednesday. Panelists came together to discuss<\/span> issues at CUNY involving bathrooms, pronouns, harassment, and lack of resources.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Town hall attendees universally condemned CUNY\u2019s failings to protect and advocate for trans and gender non-conforming people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gender-neutral bathrooms are few and far between, usually in isolated locations, panelists say. Attendees push for CUNY professors to take LGBT education training and to include information on pronouns in their syllabuses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the attendees was Elisa Crespo, the first transgender woman of color to make it on the ballot for New York City Council.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not win, but we made history,\u201d said Crespo on her run to represent District 15.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cevoli and many others experienced microaggressions and exclusion at CUNY colleges.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was isolated. There were no other trans professors. There wasn\u2019t support,\u201d said Cevoli. \u201cThat took a toll on me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c9milia Decaudin, Democratic district leader in Queens, pointed out that CUNY sells diversity, but does not enact it.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Being trans in CUNY is not an easy experience,\u201d said Decaudin. \u201cThe university absolutely falls short of its rhetoric.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year, <\/span>the student government conducted a survey<\/span><\/a> to gather support for the addition of pronouns to class rosters.<\/span><\/p>\n

CUNY did not respond when asked to comment on the lack of accessible gender-neutral bathrooms and the unresponsiveness of administration to change deadnames on the email logins of trans students, among other issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many panelists mentioned feeling unsafe at CUNY campuses. After one trans student reported a sexual assault to CUNY, they were denied help by CUNY\u2019s administration and told they would still have to pay for withdrawn classes. Unable to afford to continue their education, they were forced to drop out.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Panelists say CUNY is unresponsive when it comes to updating names on emails and email logins for trans students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIf I want to introduce myself to someone, I have to deadname myself first,\u201d said panelist Theadora Williams.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Only when Williams threatened CUNY with legal action did her case move forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>“People will discriminate against us and hate us,\u201d said Williams. \u201cNothing happens. They are just in power and they stay there.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Council Member for the 6th District Helen Rosenthal shared her support as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>“I don\u2019t think CUNY has come through for the LGBT community, the trans community in particular, at all,” said Rosenthal. \u201cWhat CUNY leadership really needs to do is diversify its LGBT presence in the administration and its board so that the people making the decisions know what they\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cThis is no longer just about making safe spaces for us,\u201d said <\/span>panelist <\/span>Abigail Thomas. It\u2019s about making every space safe.”<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Panelists plot next steps to make CUNY more trans-friendly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":3705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[279,408],"class_list":["post-3700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-huntercollege-hunterstudents","tag-transcuny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3700"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3710,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3700\/revisions\/3710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}