Why should trans people be at Barnard? Right that's probably one of the pieces that's in here
for all of you. I mean in my opinion broadly, right, because
trans women are women. Because people are who they say they are.
That's a like a really big fundamental anti-transphobic feminist belief I have that I hope you share.
But also because trans people are gender oppressed people.
And this is what this is what the mission I think that places like Barnard is about.
Trans people are intensely marginalized in education, in employment
and are intensely poor because of this, and highly criminalized.
If what I hope Barnard is about is lifting people into education who
have that door slammed in their face because of harmful norms about gender
This is a group of people we really want to be making a pathway here for.
In the same way that I also think Barnard should really prioritize indigenous people,  
people with disabilities, people of color, immigrant people.
All the people who specifically going to experience gender oppression in higher ed
in sharpened, heightened way. Just to share some stats about
the kinds of broader context of trans people.
A few years ago, the biggest study that's ever happened of trans people and discrimination in the US
They found some pretty wild things, like 78% of people in the survey had
been harassed in k-12. And 35% had been assaulted--physically assaulted.
35% of trans people had been physically assaulted during their k-12 experience
15% dropped out because of that harassment. I think a broader percent also drops out
because of other forms of school push out related to racism, ableism etc.
90% of trans people have experienced some kind of discrimination in their job.
or have had to hide in order to prevent it. That's a huge number.
Trans people in general have double the unemployment rate of the general population
and trans people of color have four times the unemployment rate of the general population.
26% of trans people have lost their job because of their gender, and a fifth of trans people
have been homeless in their lives. So if we're just talking
about trying to make sure that people who are experiencing gender oppression get access to higher ed,
 and all the things that can come with higher ed, right? This a population 
 that Barnard really wants to be serving. Not intensely
 stopping from attending, just a current situation. 
 To me the real purpose of this space and 
 what women's colleges are now, is to address gender oppression education,
 and its aspirational purpose. 
  It's a purpose of trying to serve people who are underserved in higher education,
 to provide access tools and experiences that people are blocked from,
 and it's not- we'll consistently be- 
 trans people are not the only people excluded from this space, right, like that is not-
 trans people are not the only people who are not getting access to Barnard.
 Barnard is an elite private education, there's a lot of different ways in which people are kept out. 
 This is one of those vectors, right? But what we
want to be doing is having that aspirational project, of saying, 
 how can Barnard be looking always to figure out how to be 
 a space that provides access to education to people who- gender oppression, 
 and all of its complicated interactions with racism, colonialism, ableism, 
 capitalism, etc, produce 
 populations that do not have access to higher ed
 that want it, or produce a space inside Barnard that's hostile to certain students 
 or that, you know, denies certain kinds of 
knowledge and education and produces other forms of/ 
 parts of the curriculum as enchanted, right, so that's- that is
 this transformative vision that we could have for Barnard, that I think some people have at 
 different levels in the alumni population, in the faculty, staff, and student populations.
 At the very least, Barnard should enforce a trans hoc policy. 
 Even if we can't all agree with aspirations, 
 we just, at the very least, it's vitally important
 that we not have major institutions that we are part of 
 be articulating a politics that is absolutely deadly to certain populations.
 The logic that says trans people are not who
 we say we are, that says trans women are not women,
that says it's okay to tell people what gender they should be
 is the same logic that produces all the stats I read earlier about trans people who marginalization,  
 and literally produces early death for trans people. 
 So we don't want this institution to have a message 
 that aligns with something deadly for a very vulnerable population.  
 That's gotta go. Even if we can't all agree to the aspirational vision
 of having Barnard really agree to the most underserved populations, 
 which I think, and hope, we would. 
