On Nov. 13, the American Medical Association House of Delegates firmly decided to take a stand on several healthcare policies they believe are ineffective. The AMA is pushing for state and federal population surveys — and databases for government and private healthcare insurers — to include sexual orientation and gender identities.

President Donald Trump’s administration recently considered defining sex as a “biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth.” This blow from the government administration could not have come at a poorer time. In 2017 and 2018, at least 74 percent of known victims in anti-transgender violence were misgendered in media coverage or police reports.

We must support efforts of the AMA in giving the transgender community their deserved validation.

“You have one of the most prestigious national organizations that settles medical ideas to come out and say ‘look, sex and gender are much more complicated than a binary system’. It authorizes another perspective,” said Melissa Welshans, a part-time english instructor at Syracuse University.

What this campaign shows us is that there is an importance in dominant communities supporting marginalized communities. For college students, this means that we must do the same for other communities who are not receiving simple rights we deserve.

This especially counts in a community such as SU. In the 2016 campus climate assessment, 1.5 percent of participants openly identified as transgender. Their experiences continue to reflect the marginalization and oppression that the community faces as a whole.

Sixty two percent of SU transgender participants indicated they experienced “exclusionary, intimidating, offensive, and/or hostile conduct indicated that the conduct was based on their gender identity.”

It’s no secret that this campus is dominated by a cissexual and straight community. But like the AMA, we’re at a position where we can truly advocate for change if we come together to enact it.

“College students are in a great time in their lives to educate themselves about issues in the world. They can be active in their communities and people in the real world in ways that wouldn’t be oppressive,” Welshans said.

In our position of privilege at SU, we must realize that education about people different than ourselves is perhaps the most crucial education we can receive.

Lianza Reyes is a junior broadcast and digital journalism major. Her column runs biweekly. She can be reached at lireyes@syr.edu.

Published on November 27, 2018 at 9:55 pm