Morehouse Opens Admission to Transgender Men, but Will Expel Students Who Transition to Female

I was pleased to read that all-male HBCU Morehouse College has opened its admission to transgender men. But the policy also requires all students admitted to Morehouse to identify as male for the duration of their education there, saying that any student who transitions from male to female "will not be eligible to matriculate." This part of the policy is cruel and unlawful. Like the military ban, it will force people to suppress or hide their gender identities, since coming out risks rejection from the community and having to start over in another setting. It is unlawful because despite the Department of Education's backpedaling on this view, federal courts are continuing to view Title IX to prohibit discrimination against transgender students. Assuming that Title IX applies in this manner, it would be unlawful for any school that receives federal funds to expel a student because they are transgender.

Morehouse and other single-sex colleges are not exempt from this application of Title IX.  Private undergraduate institutions are exempt from Title IX in their admissions policy, which is how we have single-sex private colleges in the first place. But expulsion decisions are not admissions decisions and are not covered by the exemption for admissions.

Unfortunately, Morehouse isn't the only single-sex institution with policies that threaten expulsion to students who come to terms with their gender identity after they have enrolled. In 2011, I made this same argument about a women's college in Virginia when it adopted a policy to expel any student who transitions to male while they are enrolled. Hollins College continues to defend this policy on the grounds that Title IX does not cover transgender students. Since 2011, however, federal courts such as the Seventh Circuit as well as district courts in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and others have ruled that it does, calling into question the legality of Hollins' policy, as well as now Morehouse's.

However, in contrast to Morehouse, its sister school Spelman has a transgender-inclusive admissions policy that states, "If a woman is admitted and transitions to male while a student at Spelman, the College will permit that student to continue to matriculate at and graduate from Spelman."