A majority of transgender Americans are mistreated at work and at school. Because of their gender identity and presentation, they are denied homes. They are harassed by the police and refused medical care. Like Alcorn, they are rejected by their friends and their families. They are misunderstood and marginalized by the people with whom they live.

Today’s Harvard students will become bosses and landlords. We will write laws, and enforce them. We will become doctors and parents, and we are already roommates. We will all impact the lives of transgender and gender-nonconforming people—without, it seems, learning about them or attending a school that really includes them. 

Last week, Bruno Moguel Gallegos quoted Alcorn’s suicide note: “My death needs to mean something.” He offers a national agenda for policy change, but we have work to do at Harvard, too. All trans students must feel safe in restrooms and with their housing arrangements. More trans faculty members must feel safe enough to come out. Trans people must not be erased in our sexual assault workshops or in Community Conversations.

If we continue to exclude transgender and gender-nonconforming community members, we are complicit in the marginalization that is happening now—and in the discrimination, harassment, and suicides that will persist for years if we do not take action.

Leelah Alcorn’s death must mean something. At Harvard, it should mean an end to trans exclusion and the administration’s acknowledgement that no price is too high for the safety of our students. Above all, it should mean a staunch and definitive statement that transgender people exist, and that they belong here. 

Of all the words in next year’s readings for Community Conversations, many more than one should be the word “transgender.”

 

Ted G. Waechter ’18 is a Crimson editorial writer living in Canaday Hall.