GENDER Lawmakers should recognize differences between sex and identity
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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY—NEW BRUNSWICK
TUESDAY OCTOBER 30, 2018
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Shooting prompts response from Barchi CHRISTIAN ZAPATA NEWS EDITOR
A Pittsburgh synagogue was targeted in a shooting committed Saturday by a gunman who was reportedly known for posting anti-Semitic comments and threats online. The shooting resulted in the deaths of 11 people. Barchi reached out to the Rutgers community with condolences. GOOGLE MAPS
In an email yesterday, Rutgers University President Robert L. Barchi shared his condolences for families and members of the Jewish community affected by a mass shooting that occurred over the weekend. On Saturday, 11 people were killed after a gunman opened fire at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pa. Barchi referred to this as a horrific and cowardly act of anti-Semitic terrorism. “We share in the worldwide mourning of these innocent victims — and in grateful admiration for the heroes whose actions prevented further loss of life — and we offer support at this moment of pain and sorrow,” Barchi said in the email.
Barchi stated the need for students, faculty and staff to know Rutgers continues to be a safe space for practicing one’s faith and has long been committed to the promise of tolerance, diversity and inclusion. “We are a community that celebrates our differences, and our vibrant student faith communities are a point of pride for our University,” he said. He further condemned anti-Semitism in society and on campus. This includes violence and hatred toward people of any religious belief, according to the email. “We must always speak forcefully against such evils. Although we come from many traditions, we share a common humanity, and we must protect the right of every member of our community to worship freely and in safety,”
Rutgers professors argue against Trump’s Title IX proposal CATHERINE NGUYEN STAFF WRITER
Last week, The New York Times reported that President Donald J. Trump’s administration proposed redefining sex under Title IX, a federal civil rights law that protects people from sex discrimination in education programs and activities that receive federal funding. In the leaked Department of Health and Human Services memo, the department proposed that there are only two sexes, male and female, which are unchangeable and determined by the genitalia that a person is born with, according to the Times. “The Trump administration is guilty of a biological fiction,” said Kyla Schuller, an associate professor in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies. She said that in the 1950s, psychologists and scientists developed the definition of gender to help identify a person’s sexual identity and role. Schuller said that biological sex has different components, including hormones, chromosomes and genital shape, which can and regularly do misalign within a person’s body. “Neither sex nor gender is reducible to genitalia at birth, and the Trump administration is deliberately seeking to define trans and intersex people out of existence and thus out of legal protection,” she said. Current scientific consensus also opposes the department’s proposed definition of sex. Melinda Mangin, an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education, said that 20 medical associations
Consequences of Title IX protections being taken away could include no gender-neutral bathrooms, faculty refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns and students not getting the proper treatment in medical settings. THE DAILY TARGUM have released statements that gender is internally determined, and not something that is necessarily associated with genitalia. “The federal administration is tr ying to make a policy based on erroneous conclusions that
are easily debunked by science,” she said. Due to Title IX, Mangin said public schools are legally required to protect transgender students. What happens in a given school context does not always adhere to
the law, she said. Although Title IX is a federal law, only seven states have rulings at the state level that uphold Title IX as providing support to transgender and gender-diverse students, one of them being New Jersey.
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“We would like to see protections in all 50 states,” she said. Regarding Rutgers specifically, Mangin said that especially after the death of Tyler Clementi in 2010, SEE SCIENCE ON PAGE 5