An international sorority is under fire for explicitly barring transgender women from joining.
The Zeta Phi Beta International Executive Board issued a “diversity statement” earlier this year requiring that “an individual must be a cisgender woman” in order to pledge the sorority, according to a copy obtained by the Washington Blade.
Zeta Phi Beta has over 800 chapters and 100,000 members, and has been around since it was originally founded at Howard University in 1920.
On the sorority’s website, it says that the organization was founded by women who “believed that sorority elitism and socializing overshadowed the real mission for progressive organizations and failed to address fully the societal mores, ills, prejudices, and poverty affecting humanity in general and the black community in particular.”
Particularly given Zeta Phi Beta’s positive foundation principles, a lot of people are upset by this new discriminatory policy.
\u201cZeta Phi Beta banning transgender women from membership is gross and disgusting. The reduction of women to biology (vaginas) is not only anti-trans but anti-black.\n\nif any group of people should understand the harmful impact of the regulation of womanhood it is cis black women.\u201d— America's Problem | #AudreLordeTaughtMe (@America's Problem | #AudreLordeTaughtMe) 1556209843
\u201cThis is so disappointing. I\u2019d been bracing for our orgs to start addressing trans identity, but had assumed the issue of contention would be membership status if a member has transitioned\u2014not jumping out to ban trans women for literally no reason https://t.co/78k8dXxFcP\u201d— Jamilah Lemieux (@Jamilah Lemieux) 1556212609
\u201c1. Trans people are likely in your sorority already\n2. Queer people FOR DAMN SURE are in your sorority\n3. Trans women are women\n\nThese orgs were literally founded because of discrimination and to be of service, only to discriminate & disservice their own\n\nhttps://t.co/PfvNYyXB3W\u201d— George M Johnson (@George M Johnson) 1556206009
\u201cJust like the military's ban on trans members, all it does it reinforce the idea that if you can't pass for cis, you aren't valuable and don't matter. It makes extant members shut up, and prospective members either pass or get out. #zetaphibeta #zeta\u201d— B (@B) 1556227838
Zeta Phi Beta has reportedly declined all media requests for comments so far.
