All members of Transform and friends of Transform—

There are urgent moments when we must speak—passionately, vitally, vibrantly, insistently—on a critical matter of civil rights.

This is such a time. The fair and equal treatment of trans girls is currently under attack. As Transform, we must speak out to all our constituents, asking everyone to be informed on the issues before us—specific and broad-based—and act to express our commitment to trans folks of every sort. 

We stand with all our transgender communities in their keen advocacy work on this front, not as a matter of partisan politics but as an issue of human thriving. 

Please see the quite urgent collection of points from Equality Utah, so you can be sure you are informed. (To see how the NCAA has framed these matters for quite a while now, see: https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/Transgender_Handbook_2011_Final.pdf.) See as well a letter to the editor written by our own Associate Dean for Research, Claudia Geist: https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/letters/2021/02/10/letter-transphobic/

We remind ourselves, as always, of the nested nature of all our concerns.  Keen attention to a specific injustice sharpens our minds and hearts for all others, for they are connected. This is what we’re learning from each other each day.

By your side,
Kathryn and your entire Transform Executive Team

Kathryn Bond Stockton, Dean
Edmund Fong, Chair of Ethnic Studies
Wanda Pillow, Chair of Gender Studies
Angela Smith, Director of Disability Studies
Claudia Geist, Associate Dean for Research
Hokulani Aikau, Director of Pacific Islands Studies
Elizabeth Archuleta, Associate Chair of Ethnic Studies
Kim Hackford-Peer, Associate Chair of Gender Studies
Jen Wozab, Student Success Coordinator
Estela Hernandez, Assistant Dean