A bill passed by the Student Association on April 10 may protect Syracuse University students against bias-related incidents involving gender identity and expression, a protection SU faculty and staff have enjoyed for awhile now.

The bill recommended the inclusion of gender identity and expression in the non-discrimination section of the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities. President Wayne Horton, who drafted and presented the bill to the Assembly, said the issue is part of an initiative by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender student group Outrage.

‘This is a great step in the right direction to become a more open, accepting community, which is something that needs to occur,’ Horton said.

A section in the document defining the rights and responsibilities of SU faculty and staff already includes gender identity and expression in its non-discrimination policy, said Brian Stout, president and founder of Outrage. It is because of this and an effort by the organization to include all students and protect them from discrimination that the issue was brought to Horton’s attention.

SA is still researching avenues in order to implement the resolution. It is still unclear if it will have to pass through the University Senate, Horton said. This may mean it will not be put into practice until sometime next semester; however, Horton said this is an issue he will work on during the summer.

It was at a diversity workshop at the Winnick Hillel Center for Jewish Life during its Month of Caring in February where Horton said he met a member of Outrage who told him about the issue.

‘I thought this was a great opportunity for the Student Association to work with a fledgling organization’ to get its voice better heard on campus, Horton said.

Members of Outrage researched the non-discrimination policies at other universities and found many of them already protected gender identity and expression, Stout said.

‘Most liberal arts universities offer this protection … (it is present) even in the corporate world,’ he said. ‘It’s really not some new territory.’

Because of obstacles such as lack of quorum at an SA meeting and the need for more research on the issue, Horton said the bill ‘got put on the back burner’ until last week.

Stout described gender identity and expression as behavior by someone that does not necessarily correlate with his or her biological gender. He said the change to the non-discrimination policy would especially affect transgender students; without that kind of protection, a transgender student could experience a bias-related incident or hate crime on campus and no action could be taken against the perpetrator.

‘Traditionally someone whose sex was male, you’d assume they’d have blue walls, play baseball, wear typical guy clothes – but that’s not necessarily the case for a lot of people,’ he said.

Outrage plans to take this issue to a higher level.

Along with collecting 500 signatures for a petition to accommodate gender identity and expression in the non-discrimination policy at SU, Stout said the organization is also circulating a petition to include non-discrimination against gender identity and expression in New York state law. Right now, New York state law only recognizes non-discrimination based on sexual orientation, he said.

SA Chief of Staff Ryan Kelly voted in favor of the bill.

‘I’m glad to see students on campus being proactive,’ he said of Outrage’s efforts.

The bill will help create a more inclusive culture on campus because it would create more awareness of LGBT and gender issues, he said.

‘Even though you’re categorizing people, you’re recognizing them,’ he said. ‘I never even thought about this (issue) until this bill.’

Stout and Horton both said the bill is a positive example of students taking action for a cause they feel strongly about.

‘It kind of dispels some myths (about college students),’ Stout said. ‘Here you have a situation where the administration has not been really aggressive in this issue, and here you have students coming together completely on their own … this is an effort that truly came out of students’ interest.’

Published on April 19, 2006 at 12:00 pm