Northwestern Folds to Pressure, Betraying Trans Students
Leading Off: Northwestern University reached an agreement with the Department of Education on Friday to restore federal funding which would remove virtually all protections for transgender students and faculty, all while publicly denying the betrayal.
by Valorie Van-Dieman
On Friday, November 28th, Northwestern University reached an agreement with the Trump regime, following disputes over funding that have been going on since April. This agreement consists of sweeping concessions to the demands of the administration, including paying the federal government $75M over the next three years, and restricting protest activity on campus.
An aspect of the agreement that has been largely overlooked in legacy media, however, is the ways this agreement impacts trans students and faculty at Northwestern. Deep in the agreement, in just one paragraph, Northwestern says it will, “uphold its commitment to Title IX by providing safe and fair opportunities for women, including single-sex housing for any woman, defined on the basis of sex, who requests such accommodations and all-female sports, locker rooms, and showering facilities.”
Implicit to this agreement is that the adherence to Title IX means accepting its recent redefinition of it by the Trump regime that equal treatment of cis women requires removing all protections for transgender individuals. What this agreement would result in then, in effect, would be blanket restrictions on trans people’s access to single sex spaces college-wide. While the language of the agreement leaves room for cis women to accept housing with trans women, and the option for all-gender housing remains, given that most on-campus housing at Northwestern uses communal restrooms, this would likely result in an effective ban on trans women’s using restrooms matching their gender identity in all housing. Under this language, a single cis student who objects to sharing restrooms with trans students in a Northwestern dormitory is enough to trigger a bathroom ban.
Despite these clearly laid out restrictions on trans students’ access to facilities and activities, the university contends in an FAQ about the agreement that, “The agreement places no restrictions on our transgender community. The University unequivocally supports all members of our community, including transgender students, faculty and staff.” In the following paragraph of the answer, however, it reiterates that fair opportunities for women are “defined on the basis of sex,” specifically citing the executive order “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which is an effective denial of all transgender identity.
In addition to these restrictions on trans students and faculty, the agreement also states that, “Northwestern and its Feinberg School of Medicine shall not perform hormonal interventions and transgender surgeries” on “any individual under the age of 18 years old, effective immediately.”
While there is no evidence that the university ever provided gender affirming surgeries to minors, it did provide hormone replacement therapy for 17-year old students, meaning that as of Friday, their access to hormones was cut off immediately and without warning. In the FAQ, when answering about transgender healthcare, it states, “The University and Feinberg School of Medicine have never performed gender-affirming surgeries for minors. Northwestern continues to support transgender members of our community,” The subject of hormone therapy is never addressed in the FAQ.
It is unclear how these policy changes would impact gender affirming care at hospitals affiliated with Northwestern University. However, given the consistent avoidance of providing any clear answers or ownership of changes impacting trans people, it is not unlikely that wider policy changes may occur.
While Northwestern University pays lip service to its support of its transgender students and faculty, what is clear is that these are just words. The policy changes they have agreed to would inflict sweeping policy changes across the university, severely restricting transgender students’ access to housing, facilities, and sports. This betrayal by a major organization is just the latest of many capitulations to the demands of an administration bent on the removal of trans people from public life.
Valorie Van-Dieman (she/they) is an Associate Editor at Assigned Media. @valorievandieman.bsky.social