According to The College Fix
A community college in Southern California has announced that it will provide scholarships to either transgender students or students “active in the transgender community.”
The college will not, however, be taking any steps to verify that a scholarship recipient is actually transgender.
First, it's important to note that the funds to pay for this are being raised via donation, not pulling from Government coffers. So, in that sense, this is great -- people can do whatever they want voluntarily, and this is an example of putting your money where your mouth is in many ways.
However, this is setting a bad precedent by having no verification or vetting process:
Abuse
With this scholarship, there is nothing stopping me from saying
Hi, I feel transgendered today. Give me money now.
And how far could such scholarships go?
What if I identify as black -- I'm trans-racial? Race is a social construct, after all, so give me a scholarship.
What if I'm trans-abled? I might look like I can walk, and biologically there's nothing stopping me from walking, but I identify as paraplegic? You know there are actually people like this?
What if I'm trans-aged? Yeah, you should probably give me some money for that.
Actually, I'm even trans-genius. I know my test scores don't reflect it, but I actually Identify as a straight-A-student, so I think I should get some kind of full ride scholarships.
I know I look like your average, everyday cicgendered white male, but I actually identify as a black asexual 86-year-old woman with no arms and an IQ of 190. Where's my money.
The natural result...
This is the sort of thing that happens when culture rewards identity over skill, merit, and hard work.
When people are given privileges for who they are rather than what they do, there is no control mechanism for honesty and quality, and abuse runs rampant.
All in all, I find these sorts of identity politics fascinating.
I'm interested to see how it all plays out.
What do you think? Leave a comment.
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At least the funds are paid via donations. When you start to go down this path it can be a slippery slope. In our EHR we have built we have to include the sexual orientation and gender identity of the patient.
I can understand sexual orientation -- that might be pertinent in diagnosing certain things. But gender identity? Why?
All of us in the medtech community are wondering the same thing
Ok, so it's not just me lol
Good.
trans-bear...?
In Lalaland, it's hard to tell. The bear may even identify as a gay canteloupe. Who knows?
Don't assume its identity.
Lol trans-genius I'm going to use that one day.
Good!