Harvard's Kennedy School of Government rescinded a visiting fellowship offered to Chelsea Manning, the former military intelligence analyst who spent seven years in prison for leaking classified government secrets, after the university faced forceful backlash from CIA Director Mike Pompeo among others.
"I now think that designating Chelsea Manning as a Visiting Fellow was a mistake, for which I accept responsibility," Douglas W. Elmendorf, the school's dean, wrote in a 700-word statement released shortly after midnight Friday.
Manning was one of four visiting fellows announced two days earlier by the Kennedy School's Institute of Politics. As part of the program, visiting fellows appear on Harvard's campus for speaking engagements and events, interacting with undergraduate students on "topical issues of today," the school's initial announcement explained.
Elmendorf decided to withdraw the invitation after realizing that "many people view a Visiting Fellow title as an honorific," though the school had not intended to "honor [Manning] in any way or to endorse any of her words or deeds."
The Establishment called.
Harvard University invited Chelsea Manning to be a visiting fellow, but withdrew the invitation after CIA Director Mike Pompeo wrote:
The students there are now owed an institution that acts responsibility; an institution that does not sanction or legitimize the criminal path Ms. Manning took to undermine our national security.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Sunday September 17 2017, @04:06PM
Oddly, my experience as a naturally-born female ("cis-" being a misnomer**) is that bathroom laws requiring people to use the bathroom that matches their biological sex favors us, as it makes it far harder for non-trans biological males with malicious intent to enter our bathroom unchallenged. Also, instilling powerful behavioral prohibitions in people at a very young age (i.e. "don't ever go into the bathroom of the opposite sex") does make a significant impact in their behavior later on, even if they're enraged or have criminal intent.
**Latin "cis-" refers to remaining entirely on one side (i.e. male-masculine or female-feminine), which isn't accurate: most non-trans people have a broad mix of traits from both gender stereotypes within their culture.
The trans-friendly alternative to the "everything goes" scenario would be to eliminate stalls in favor of separate single-occupant hallway-entrance bathrooms with locking doors. The trouble is that it would dramatically reduce the number of available toilets by perhaps four-fifths, which would have a negative impact on everyone.
I think that I've only had one drive-through employee ever make reference to my gender either way — most just say "hi, how can I help you?", "okay, that will be $[amount] at the first window" and "enjoy your [time period]!" The one that did *did* guess my gender wrong (trachea surgery gave me an almost androgynous voice) didn't make a big deal about it; I'm easygoing & friendly enough IRL that we both laughed it off.
You lost me there somewhere. I'm primarily asexual: even if I'm wearing unisex clothing, no makeup/jewelry, and a wispy androgynous ponytail like I usually do, I've still got a female body — nobody is "determining" my gender, it's just...there.
I think that I'm coming at this from a very different angle because of my birth defects. I regard my body much the way I do my car: it's factually designed a certain way, and how I feel things should be simply doesn't factor into it. That my personality traits make me tend to assume that my body can do certain things or should be designed a certain way doesn't change reality, regardless of whether it's "I shouldn't have boobs" or "I should be able to gain muscle easily like men" or "my colon should work on its own without medical intervention."
Actually, from what I've seen, there's an inverse correlation between transphobia and strong belief in stereotyped gender norms. Nobody aside from me ever seemed to suggest or question my gender based on my appearance or behavior until fairly recently, when I started encountering people who seem to believe that the only reason I'd refrain from making an effort to look/act feminine was because I didn't "identify" as a female—as if a person can't be female and not stereotypically feminine, or male and not stereotypically masculine.