Tufts sorority members protest transgender discrimination
Nearly half the chapter dropped in solidarity
Forty-seven members of Alpha Omicron Pi’s Tufts University chapter quit the sorority last month after their national headquarters took issue with a transgender student’s membership.
Kristin Reeves, a Tufts junior and former chapter president, said to NECN that AOPII national headquarters told their chapter that they “were at risk of infringing upon the organization’s Title 9 status as a single sex organization.”
In protest of what they say as blatant discrimination, Reeves and 46 other girls — nearly half the chapter — quit the sorority. Reeves said that after the mass exit headquarters said the trans student could join, but it was too late in the minds of many members.
Courtney West, a spokesperson for AOPII headquarters, said that the organization hopes to “come [up] with a very well-researched and organized policy in the future.”
The transgender chapter member wishes to remain anonymous, but she penned an open letter in the Tufts students newspaper voicing that she and the other members of the chapter are friends, allies and sisters.