New Horizons… A Religious Sorority

We are being accepted in more and more places.

A Transgender Person is the New Leader of a Jewish Sorority in Ohio
Friendly Atheist Patheos
By Sarahbeth Caplin
January 12, 2019

In a milestone for both the transgender and Jewish communities, a religious sorority has named a trans woman as their president.

Elliot Draznin, who is nonbinary and uses the pronoun “they,” will lead Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi, or SAEPi, at the University of Cincinnati.

Um… they are not a trans woman. They identify as non-binary!

“It was a lot of deciding that I believe in this mission, so even though I don’t identify as a woman, I’m going to stay in this gendered space to keep the idea of a Jewish space for women alive on the University of Cincinnati’s campus,” Draznin told JTA last week.

In August, SAEPi, which was founded in 1998 and has 23 chapters and colonies across the country, changed its policy to make it clear that transgender and gender nonconforming people are welcomed as members.

The decision was prompted both by Draznin and two other transgender individuals joining the sorority, as well as conversations happening around inclusion with other Greek organizations, according to executive director Chayla Furlong.

I know a lot of people are going to have a hard time coming to grips with this. The best answer is let them decide where they want to be sororities or fraternities it is their decision to make not ours.