A Very Nice Start

A lot of times we thing negatively about sororities but once in a while they do something to break that image.

Sorority to include transgender women after student petition
Panther
By Kristen Weiser
October 30, 2016

Dissatisfied with the current bylaws about transgender members, senior philosophy major Deanna Merced wrote a petition Oct. 18 urging the Pi Beta Phi sorority to become nationally inclusive to transgender women.

“As a member of Pi Beta Phi, I was disappointed to learn that my own organization did not have a similar policy (to other sororities),” Merced wrote in the petition.”I couldn’t help but think of our values, and how we could truly be living them out to the fullest extent if we were to include these women in our membership.
[…]
Within hours of sharing the petition, a member of Pi Beta Phi’s headquarters staff contacted Merced saying that the sorority agreed with her statement, and that an update to Pi Beta Phi’s national non-discrimination policy will be released soon. Eily Cummings, Pi Beta Phi’s senior director in marketing and communication, told The Panther that a release date has not yet been set.

Merced and her 86 supporters on the petition felt that a sorority cannot truly be a safe, supportive place for women until it includes every woman.

Wow! I am surprised but it is a nice surprise but it didn’t end there.

In early October, senior Kati Simpson, Panhellenic’s vice president of scholarship and standards, updated the bylaws of the Chapman University Panhellenic Association. Among Simpson’s updates was an addition to the non-discrimination policy that made Chapman’s sororities inclusive to transgender women.

“The Chapman University Panhellenic Association is committed to equal opportunity for all and does not discriminate in membership or access to its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, ability, age, socioeconomic class, sexual orientation or gender identity (as long as the person in question identifies as a member of the female gender),” the updated bylaws said.
[…]
While only two of Chapman’s sororities, Delta Gamma and Kappa Kappa Gamma, are nationally inclusive to transgender women, the newly rewritten bylaw reassures any person who identifies as a woman that she will not be excluded from a Panhellenic organization on campus based on the gender she was assigned at birth.

It sounds like fraternities are also included in the new policy and not just sororities. I wonder how the national organizations think about this, are they going into a frenzy over this?

I was a member of a fraternity and when I transitioned I sent them a copy of my probate letter and asked them to change my information in their records. I never heard back from them and all correspondence from them ended, it turned out it was an easy way to get off their mailing list, no more begging for money nor the quarterly magazine.