A private, historically African-American all-male college in Atlanta has just enacted a new rule which bans students from dressing as women. According to an administrator, there are only a handful who are cross-dressing and this is a “gay lifestyle” not expected of Morehouse men.
Once again, we have ignorance running rampant. Firstly, so what if students are gay? That does not mean that they won’t be valuable members of society and great representative alumni! In addition, because they wear women’s clothing they are automatically living a homosexual lifestyle!
While I don’t usually rant on this blog, this story has me a bit heated this afternoon. To put things in perspective, they have also banned students from sloppy dress like sagging pants, du rags and pajamas.
This is 2009, I don’t see a problem with a male student dressing in women’s clothing appropriate for a university classroom. Not everyone in the college agrees with this policy, but there is probably nothing that can be done to change this.
Of course, this also opens up these students to harassment from students who are scared of cross-dressing men. Students who are in violation of the dress code will not be allowed to attend class while breaking this atrociously ridiculous rule.
There really isn’t much more to say about this, I’m upset and I’m sure you’re upset too. I really hope that famous alumni from Morehouse take a stand and speak up for what is right. You can’t just stifle people’s expression any more, this is discrimination, plain and simple.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
The first sentence of your story says it all-”historically African-American all-male college.” We’ve seen many examples of how homophobic/transphobic the mainstream African-American community can be. This is just another example.
I go to a very urban school and I wouldn’t dare wear girl clothes, unfortunately.
The one devil’s advocate I could say for such a policy if they had come at it from a different angle, and not the homophobic one that they did, was that if someone is transgendered and chooses to present as a woman, then they should probably not be going to an all-male school. There has been a bit of a heated debate amongst all-women’s schools in the last few years about whether or not they should allow students who identify themselves as female to male transsexuals. There’s valid points on both sides.
However, reading the actual article, I find it incredibly hypocritical of this school to talk about such groundbreaking people like MLK and Spike Lee in the context of their own efforts to discriminate.
It has always amazed me how homo/trans-phobic the majority of black males are. I used to work with a lot of black men, and nearly all of them were homophobic. When I brought up how hypocritical their attitude was, considering the civil rights struggle that black Americans have had to go through, they emphatically say it’s not the same thing. They just don’t get it. I blame it on the curse of machismo, that infects so many male egos, and a fundamentalist patriarchal view of Christianity, that teaches them that gender and sexual variance is a sin.
Melissa
If you do not like the dress code policy. There are many other colleges that will accept your dress style anyway you like it. Morehouse is trying to mold Christian Black Men. Gay black men should know we as people cannot be like the mainstream. We have to show were twice as good as everybody else. That includes dressing professionally. First impressions are everything.
I tend not to object to dress codes provided they are fair and have some flexibility, however one thing to apply it in class, lectures etc another outside.
No trans or gv group on campus or outside they could talk to? They did consult, shame it was just the gay organisation because as we all know…
I’m not going to make any friends with this statement but – it is a private collage and dress codes enforcement is well within their right.
However, I do agree there seems to be rampant fear and ignorance within the administration at that college which does not help those who are questioning and or expressing their gender differently than people would like them to do.
This is a PRIVATE ALL-MALE college. I have no issue with GLBT people (I have many friends and had roommates who fall into all categories), but sometimes you just get what you ask for. It’s private so they can enforce whichever dress code they please and it’s an all-male school so if you identify yourself as a woman you should obviously be elsewhere. Like other posters suggested it IS a predominately black school and yes, African-American men tend to be on the homophobic side so to have males walking around the campus in drag or transgenders in general is going to be a great deterrent for young African-American males who come to tour the campus in order to decide if they would like to become “Morehouse Men”. It goes against the idea of what a “Morehouse Man” is and what the campus stands for, like it or not.