Those darn students
Dear USD Faculty:
Last month, students discovered a faculty blog that is part of the Law Professor Blogs Network. While these blog posts cover an array of topics, anti-transgender rhetoric is a recurrent theme. We are not talking about articles posted or comments made in the early 2000s. A February 2020 article reposted on this blog equates teenage transitions to state-sponsored child abuse. Another article characterizes dating transgender people as deny[ing] biological reality and normaliz[ing] abnormal behaviors. Yet another post condemns efforts to include transgender individuals in religious life.
On a broader level, this incident caused our student body to reflect on the values that we hold dear as an institution. As our law school is on the threshold of selecting its next dean, we are offered an opportunity to take stock of where we re at and imagine what the future might hold.
USD Law has transgender students. Students have transgender siblings, transgender friends, and transgender partners. Students and alumni spearheaded a free legal clinic, the Name and Gender-Marker Change Clinic, that has now served over four hundred transgender and non-binary San Diegans. While many professors and administrators share their support for LGBTQ+ students in private for which we are deeply appreciative the onus of moving these conversations forward publicly has largely fallen on students.
Prospective students care about these issues, too. In late February, an admitted LGBTQ+ student wrote an email to Pride Law, as do many other prospective students during this time of the year. This particular student seeks to move to Southern California to escape the rural, unaccepting state that they grew up in. This person stated, I was reaching out because my only reservations about attending USD in the fall stem from the religious aspect of the school. This email is not an anomaly, and how much or how little we should share weighs heavily on us.
LGBTQ+ students are not the only group impacted by events like these. If you spent time perusing this blog, you d soon realize that LGBTQ+ individuals are not the only minority group targeted. Events like these ignite broad fear among minority students and their allies fear that we are merely tolerated rather than accepted here.
We have all taken Con Law and are well-aware that we benefit from free speech. We are not asking that this blog be taken down, nor are we suggesting that anyone should impinge on your academic freedom. What we are asking for is a conversation. If there is one thing that we have learned in law school, it is that the words that we use have consequences.
In the interest of getting out from behind computer screens, members of Pride Law will be making themselves available to discuss this incident with any of you including the faculty member who hosts this blog. To arrange such a meeting, please email usdpridelaw@gmail.com.
To the extent that you are afforded the opportunity to help USD Law select its next dean, we hope that you ll keep student experiences like these in mind. More broadly, we urge you to talk to your students who are involved with diversity-related organizations at USD Law and ask them whether they feel tolerated or truly accepted here.
All our best,
Pride Law
Name and Gender-Marker Change Clinic
Middle Eastern Law Student Association
Law Democrats
Jewish Law Student Association
Employment & Labor Law Society
Intellectual Property Law Association
Asian Pacific American Law Students Association
La Raza Law Students Association
American Constitution Society
Black Law Students Association
Pro Bono Legal Advocates
GOOD Guys
Women s Law Caucus
Public Interest Law Foundation
Law Students for Cross-Racial Understanding
Society of Changemaker Organizations
National Lawyers Guild
Criminal Law Society
Military Bar Association