Morehouse College is located in Atlanta, Georgia.
Photo courtesy Mike Stewart/ Associated Press
Morehouse College is one of the most prestigious black universities. It is also an all-male institution.
The men of Morehouse may have started a trend with starting to admit openly transgender men to the school at the start of next year.
The day and age we live in as a society is all about acceptance of people of all walks of life without judgment. With the LGBQT community on the frontline of the acceptance movement, openly gay, or transgender people are living their lives just like the next person.
Education cannot be separated from the topic any longer especially in the black community. There are more than 1,000 institutions of higher learning with policies that openly allow transgender students at the school. Including over a dozen HBCUs.
Being the only all-male college with the transgender policy, while also being an all-black university, Morehouse will be under a microscope until success of the policy shows.
The school hopes to completely make the campus inclusive to all backgrounds, in the advancement of men in today’s society.
"I think Morehouse having the courage to speak to issues of masculinity in today's environment is important," Morehouse College President David Thomas told the Associated Press. "For 152 years, the world has, in some way, seen Morehouse as the West Point of black male development."
Keeping their masculine theme of “Brotherhood” is important to the school, and Thomas has assured that they plan on staying in line with that.
This is the second attempt at trying to change school policy as the school was faced with a situation that resulted in a student’s head being fractured because another student thought they were making a sexual pass at him.
Not all people are in favor of the policy. Titi Noami Tukes, a cisgendered man who graduated from Morehouse College in 2017, feels they are not completely showing the sensitivity towards such a change.
"The college fails at addressing and understanding the gender journey that one undergoes during their college experience, spiritually, emotionally, physically and psychologically,” said Tukes.
Learning to keep emotions at a level that will cause an easy integration will be vital in order to completely break the borders of acceptance of the transgendered people, from the black church that is so deeply rooted to HBCUs, and the black community as a whole.