Historically black sororities 85 beta is banning banning transgender women from its organization the sorority claims its values are people regardless of race age gender gender expression ability disability creed religion or walk of life yet at the same time zeta phi beta’s diversity statement says to be eligible to receive an invitation for membership
And to hold membership an individual must be a woman and must be committed to living a lifestyle of active service and sisterhood and she must typify the values standards morals customs and attributes of finer women in her community and beyond here to discuss this is transgender activist monica roberts journalist and
Author richaunda tate and phi beta sigma member i kim of intermix glad to have you here so i came with the the you the sorority came up you’re with the fraternity i’m with the president yeah yeah so when they came up with this policy were you shocked or you said well
That’s okay i wasn’t shocked you know i i can understand uh where they’re coming from you know for us it’s just simply the definition of what is a sorority what is a fraternity um as we’ve grown as a society and we’re being more conscious welcoming others we’ll have that discussion but
We’re talking about deep rooted organizations with principles that zeta pharma beta is going to be 100 years next year they’ve been ingrained in how they do things so this is probably a challenge for them but it makes more sense for the organization going forward to be very clear-cut
On what the definition is of who they’re trying to accept let’s bring monica roberts into this conversation are you disappointed you come from a sorority fraternity family yeah i am disappointed uh because as i’ve been saying we have had a problem with transphobia in the black community
And once again uh we have an instance in which transphobia is driving this policy and not other issues on this because black trans women are women and when you have fraternities and sororities who are allowing white members or members of let’s say non-black folks but you’re telling
Us black trans folks that we’re not welcome you know that’s a slap in the face not only to us but to the black trans kids who may be down with the values of zeta phi beta and other sororities and fraternities let’s bring rashawn to tate author and journalist here in this
And also member of aka right yes earlier i called you a delta and tori’s like no she’s not the devil is busy so your assessment of all of this number one as a journalist number two as a member of the sorority you know i think they’re the many of the
Sororities as he said are ingrained in their tradition and so i think that is where a lot of it is coming from i i disagree that it’s a transphobia i think that it is just a matter of this is how we have been this is our tradition and it is a continuing
Of that tradition um i did speak with several members of various sororities on this topic and a lot of them do feel and it may come with education a lot of them feel well we outreach to young girls and so their about zetas are about finer womanhood and so it’s about
Educating because in a lot of the members minds a transgender woman can’t relate to what it’s like growing up as a little girl the challenges of and however reshonda you have trans kids who are transitioning starting as early as five so that excuse doesn’t wash anymore
Uh there is there is a black trans girl that i know who is age 10 right now so these the same the thing that we don’t know what it’s like to grow up as a girl that excuse doesn’t wash anymore all right let’s let richard defense you’re going to bring i can’t
And i completely understand that that’s why i said education may be part of it but there’s also i can i can love that phi beta’s all i want but i can’t be a member of my baby but what i can do is i can support that organization a lot of the fraternities
Have little sister organizations because those are people that can’t be a part but they want to support and so maybe there’s a situation like that or maybe the transgender uh organizations can do their own sororities or their own fraternities to allow um that the education and they’d be able to teach
And enlighten others as well okay once again separate but equal okay okay we’re doing once again a separate but equal thing because bottom line as you know as i continue to repeat trans women are women okay so if i grew up in an aka family
My sister and my mom are akas i’ve been down with the the mission of aka i read ivy leaf magazine as a kid growing up i said there are other trans women that i know who would absolutely love to join a black greek letter organization
But you know to tell us and when we know that we have white members of sororities no it is not a separation it is a separate issue is also an immutable characteristic let’s real quick i just i just have to say it’s the lgbt accepted the t is where this whole controversy is
Stemming from you can be whatever race or ethnicity you want in your welcome but most organizations have the difficulty of identifying we need clearly are you my fraternity brother sorority sister sorority brother i mean we get into all that and it becomes it’s a social organization and the social
Organization itself has to be in some kind of cohesion where everybody agrees and again with the education we have we may grow and become more welcoming and more understanding but as of right now because of the principles and values and traditions we have it’s just easier to keep the focus in
The organization with identifying the clear-cut all right
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