Morehouse College Opens Its Doors To Transgender Men

Morehouse College, a private historically black all-men’s institution in Atlanta, Georgia, will begin accepting transgender students who identify as men in the fall 2020 semester.

On April 13, 2019, more than a year after the college began community engagement with faculty, staff, students and alumni on the subject, the college implemented the Gender Identity Admissions and Matriculation Policy. This comes shortly after Spelman College, a private historically black all-women’s college, implemented their own gender identity policy in 2017.

The policy states, “Morehouse will consider for undergraduate admission those applicants who live and self-identify as men, regardless of the sex assigned to them at birth. Morehouse will not consider for admission women or those assigned male at birth who identify as women.” 

While this opens the doors to a previously marginalized sect of the black population and ushers in a new level of inclusion for many, some students will unfortunately be forced to leave.

The Gender Identity Admissions and Matriculation Policy reads, “Once admitted, students are expected to continue to self-identify as men throughout their matriculation at Morehouse. If a student transitions from a man to a woman, that student will no longer be eligible to matriculate at Morehouse.”

This means that students currently enrolled on campus who have transitioned from a man to a woman throughout their matriculation will have to either transfer to another school, or go through an appeals process to remain at Morehouse.