All Women Colleges and the New World of Trans and Bi

I taught at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. It remains one of the only all women institutions of higher education. Now, it is faced with defining female. What does it do about applicants who have transitioned from male to female?

There have been and perhaps remain cultures in the world that are not as hung up on gender as is ours. I have read that native American cultures regarded the undefined gender people as having mysterious powers. They were treated with extraordinary respect. Christianity eventually robbed them of that cultural heritage.

Stephens now admits women who have completed the transition from male to female. I assume they do not require separate bathing areas as some religious people demand.

Often it is hard to fathom people who are outside the cultural box we ourselves are in. A few years ago I read a book written by the 100 year old black man. He had grown up in the segregated South. As a young man he went to Mexico. In a restaurant he was told he could sit anywhere. Mexican people could not fathom a black person would be segregated against. The black man was stunned that no one cared about his race.

It would be great if someday in the U.S. there would be such acceptance of gay, bi and trans people. Mostly, young people today have not been steeped in the "sin" myth of Christianity and cannot understand why their gender-undefined friend is treated differently.

They are too young to know about the "Moral Majority" founded by Jerry Falwell. He bragged that the biggest sale of his magazine was one which had a picture of a man in drag. Nor, do young people remember that Pope Benedict used his famous Christmas Message to insult gay people.

Stephens College will continue on with its trans women. Preachers will continue to talk about sin.