On Wednesday, little chalk messages began appearing on the sidewalks around the Smith College campus, a prestigious women’s college nestled in Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley, about 100 miles west of Boston, near where I live.
“You belong here,” one message read. “Trans women belong here,” another said. One simply featured the pastel blue, white and pink transgender pride flag.
At first, I thought these were remnants of the past weekend’s pride parade in nearby downtown Northampton, Massachusetts, one of the most queer- and trans-friendly towns in the country. But the messages were in response to something much more ominous: an announcement of a Trump administration investigation into Smith challenging its admissions policies that allow trans women to attend.
“An all-women’s college loses all meaning if it is admitting [transgender women],” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in a statement announcing the investigation on Tuesday. “Allowing [trans women] into spaces designed for women raises serious concerns about privacy, fairness, and compliance under federal law.”
A spokesperson for Smith issued a statement, saying, “The college is fully committed to its institutional values, including compliance with civil rights laws.”
Smith has allowed trans women to attend the college since 2015, a hard-won decision at the time that has since yielded no known major issue or complaint. Legal experts were puzzled by the investigation, as private colleges are exempt from Title IX requirements in their admissions policies. The investigation “either reflects ignorance of the law that the agency is entrusted to enforce,” Western New England law professor Erin Busuvis told local news outlet Masslive.com, “or they know full well what they’re doing [is] wrong and are using Smith College to gain a splashy headline that shows they are going after a liberal elite college in a blue state.”
Smith has allowed trans women to attend the college since 2015, a hard-won decision at the time that has since yielded no known major issue or complaint.
According to a report by The Boston Globe, the investigation was brought forward after a conservative group called Defending Education lodged an official complaint after the college decided last year to award an honorary degree to the former Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine, a trans woman and near constant obsession of the political right.
Locally, Smith alumni have already begun fighting back, demanding that campus leaders make clear that they will fight on behalf of the trans students already on campus.
“[I]f Smith College chooses to fight the Trump administration instead of backing down or settling, you will have my full support by whatever means necessary,” Zoe Gould, who graduated from Smith last year, wrote in a petition to campus leaders. “As a member of [the] community, and a very motivated community at that, I believe we can provide the moral and financial means necessary to defend ourselves from the ideological onslaught of the White House.”
I was around for the debate in 2015, and I can see firsthand how the Trump administration investigation threatens to reopen an old wound in the local community. I live in Northampton now, and I went to nearby University of Massachusetts Amherst, a fellow member of the Five College Consortium community of schools in the area. (The five colleges have had a tough couple of weeks between this investigation and the announced closure of Hampshire College in Amherst over financial constraints.)
The initial debate over trans women at Smith kicked off in 2013 after the rejection of an application from Calliope Wong, a young trans woman who was otherwise qualified. A student group called Q and A (Queers and Allies) began a pressure campaign to lobby the school’s administration to begin admitting trans women students. The group organized protests and developed a “Pledge of Nonsupport,” asking donors to withhold funds until the school began accepting trans women.
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A theme that appeared in coverage of the debate in the student newspaper, The Sophian, was the belief that the college should remain true to its mission as a women’s college, which meant different things depending on who was speaking to it.
Nearby women’s college Mt. Holyoke had begun admitting trans women a year earlier, and other women’s colleges had taken similar steps around the same time. In 2014, the administration formed an official policy group to study the matter and announced in 2015 that trans women would be allowed to attend the college.
Federal action against Smith now, including threats to federal funding, could affect the standing of trans students at other women’s colleges, such as Mt. Holyoke or Wellesley, two other Massachusetts women’s colleges.
Smith holds an important place in the pantheon of women’s colleges. It is one of the Seven Sisters, a consortium of historically women’s colleges, and has always served as an important place for women’s education and networking.
Since trans women began getting admitted 11 years ago, Northampton as a town has turned into a true haven for trans people, especially trans women. When I go for a walk around town or visit the local supermarket, I almost always see another trans woman just going about her life — something you understandably don’t see in most communities around the country, representation from a community that amounts to just about 1% of the country’s total population. It was one of the reasons why I wanted to move back here when I decided to leave Washington, D.C., four years ago.
This already queer-friendly town was made even better by one of its biggest institution’s, and the town’s largest employer, decision to welcome trans students. Smith holds an important place in the pantheon of women’s colleges. It is one of the Seven Sisters, a consortium of historically women’s colleges, and has always served as an important place for women’s education and networking. That trans women are included at Smith is no small matter, it is deeply symbolic. As long as places like Smith continue serving trans women, it means there is a place for trans women in womanhood.
This is probably why the Trump administration is launching this attack on Smith now, and this investigation is well in line with the White House’s obsessive targeting of trans people who just want to live in peace and go about their lives, for no logical benefit to the GOP or the conservative people who support it. It’s pure punishment politics. Trans people exist and are considered unnatural aberrations by the conservatives in power, and therefore they must be punished.
Destroying Smith’s trans inclusivity is in line with the administration’s apparent goal of destroying trans people’s lives and standing in society.
Smith and its surrounding community are proof of the positives that trans people can bring to local communities, and how communities like Northampton benefit our society nationwide. Places like Northampton give trans people a place to live safely and thrive. That’s why I moved here. Smith refusing to admit trans students would threaten more than a whole town — it would roll back the clock on trans rights and undo the work of hundreds who fought for acceptance.
Katelyn Burns is a freelance journalist based in New England.