Why RAD isn’t so “rad” for people who are at the highest risk, and other tales of collegiate fail

(possible trigger warning)

My college, Vassar, offers a sexual assault prevention education program through http://www.rad-systems.com/index.html which is "women-only." I emailed the sign-up list less than an hour after it was presented, and didn’t receive a reply on it until 8am the day of the class, when I finally demanded a response. As I’d feared, the Security officer who ran the program had decided to exclude me, and had obviously been intending not to inform me. I’m a transwoman, and because our campus email service lists our legal names in our emails, I was forced to out myself to him. NY state law and college policy prohibits discrimination based on sex, gender, and gender identity/expression, but the officer is claiming that Title IX allows them to exclude me because I’m not, as RAD states, a "woman."

I’m not sure if that’s illegal, since "woman" is a gender identity/expression, not a sex. But I don’t think it should matter whether it’s illegal, because Vassar has recently been touting itself as a place where gender is fluid, and this is really not in line with that. Likewise, an organization like RAD that claims to exist to protect people should seriously consider the implications of excluding transwomen, who are statistically at a ridiculously higher risk for sexual violence than ciswomen. Apparently, my campus security doesn’t mind if I’m raped. The officer who teaches the course made the following remarks as I presented my case:

"Do you have male appendages?"

"If you’re female-identified, why did you name yourself ‘(my male name)’ at the top of all these emails?" (it’s common knowledge that the system puts those names there, we don’t have a choice)

"Look, is this all just a Halloween costume or something?" (the course started today, November 1st)

This is in a long line of issues I’m having with my campus claiming to be a lot more accessible than it really is. We don’t have a disablist or working-class students’ org (I’m in the process of founding the former). Most people have only the most basic grasp of intersectionality–It’s rare that people understand that my working-class background, paragraph-long list of disabilities, queer sexuality, and transgender status all work together to make even the most basic aspects of college life extremely hard to work around. Has anybody else dealt with college-centered institutionalized patriarchy? Any advice on how I approach this problem with RAD?

Disclaimer: This post was written by a Feministing Community user and does not necessarily reflect the views of any Feministing columnist, editor, or executive director.

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