T HE F LAT H AT
Vol. 113, Iss. 1 | Wednesday, February 22, 2023
The Weekly Student Newspaper
of The College of William and Mary
flathatnews.com | @theflathat
Boswell Initiative hosts panel at Law School discussing issues facing transgender youth Panelists address state efforts targeting transgender students, highlight recent legislation meant to restrict students in school settings
GRAPHIC BY ABIGAIL CONNELLY / FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
ABIGAIL CONNELLY AND EMMA HENRY // FLAT HAT NEWS EDITORS Friday, Feb. 17, the John Boswell Initiative sponsored a panel discussion titled “Trans Youth: Pasts, Presents, and Futures.” The event featured Shannon McKay, the Executive Director and co-founder of He She Ze and We, Vivian Hamilton, Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Center for Racial and Social Justice at the College of William and Mary and Dr. Samantha Rosenthal, Associate Professor of History at Roanoke College and co-founder of the Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ History Project. Senior Lecturer in history Dr. Jerry “Jay” Watkins III introduced the panel and discussed his current biographical study of John Boswell ’69. “First, I want to thank some of the folks who have been involved in this,” Watkins said. “There’s of course the Boswell Initiative, the GSWS, and Outlaw and Center for Racial and Social Justice, as well as the National Lawyers Guild and all of the other folks who have contributed their time to putting this event on and organizing it.” After Boswell graduated from the College in 1969 and obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1975, he took a teaching position at Yale University. Boswell’s first book, “Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality,” was published in 1980 and left a lasting impact on the literary world. “This book was really quite monumental,” Watkins said. “The heart of the book is of course that Christianity has not always been so hostile to homosexuality and that homophobia is more socially constructed than divinely ordered.” Boswell’s book has been reprinted multiple times and has recently celebrated its 35th year anniversary of publication with a 2015 reprint. By 1986, Boswell was one of the first openly gay professors and department chairs on a national scale. He also founded the Lesbian and Gay Studies Center at Yale in 1987, which became the Research Fund for Lesbian and Gay Studies by the 1990s. “He wanted to be remembered most for his faith, but I think few have had such an impact on the field and have so profoundly shaped how we understand sexuality in the world,” Watkins said. “His memory is commemorated in a variety of ways across campus and across the world.
One of the accomplishments I am most proud of is getting a building named after him.” Hamilton began the panel discussion by addressing statistical data on transgender individuals in the United States and legislation surrounding transgender policies nationwide. According to the data shown, 1.5 million people ages 13 and older in the United States currently identify as transgender. About 300000 of these people are transgender youth from ages 13-17. “Overall, from data collected between 2016 and now, the number of trans adults has remained fairly steady, but better data collection on youths’ gender identity has given researchers better information than what was previously available for estimating the youth population and now they know that youth comprise a larger share of the trans identity population than previously estimated. Now, they comprise about 18% of trans identifying people in the U.S.,” Hamilton said. Hamilton discussed issues facing the transgender community in the current day, including bans on gender-affirming medical care and laws and legislation limiting discussion of sexuality and gender such as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida. Additionally, efforts are underway to limit transgender youth participation in school sports and the frequent banning and censorship of books containing topics such as gender, sexuality or individuals of color. “Young people have a right to see themselves reflected in their classrooms and in the books that they’re reading,” Hamilton said. Hamilton noted a report from the American Library Association, which found challenges against 1597 individual books last year, which is the highest number since we began tracking book bans 20 years ago. She added that a PEN America report found that of these books that have been banned, 379 have had LGBTQ+ characters or themes, 84 centered on transgender characters and 460 had BIPOC protagonists. “So, students and their parents are facing these censorship efforts that restrict their First Amendment rights. Their First Amendment protects
educators and students’ rights to exchange information. It also protects students rights’ to learn free from viewpoint based discrimination,” Hamilton said. In the Virginia Senate, two bills targeting transgender students failed on Feb. 16. The bills would have restricted the participation of transgender students in school athletics and required school officials to inform parents if a child presents themselves as transgender in a school environment. The bills passed in the State House but did not receive sufficient support in the Democraticcontrolled State Senate. “It’s really just kind of stunning how much time, resource and political capital is being expended on this issue,” Hamilton said. “The Virginia High School League has already implemented rules that were implemented in 2014 that allowed trans student athletes to participate with certain provisions.” McKay then introduced herself and described her work as the executive director and founder of the He She Ze and We program. “What He She Ze and We does is really work to empower families on this journey of gender identity,” McKay said. “And we work to support them, to educate them so that they know how to be accepting and supportive to their kids of all ages. And we also advocate for the rights of transgender individuals.” As the mother of a transgender child, McKay mentioned her personal connection to the issues discussed, as well as to families that may be grappling with their child’s gender identity or hostile environments for transgender youth. “Your ego, your belief system, your biases, leave it all there and come on in and open your door so that you can meet the person in front of you and help them with whatever it is they need help with,” McKay said. See PANEL on page 3
CAMPUS
Chief Cheesebro and WMPD host open forum to discuss campus safety
Arrest statistics, Good Griffin policy, general safety covered in presentation, officers share thoughts on emergency management PEERAWUT RUANGSAWASDI FLAT HAT NEWS ASSOC. EDITOR
Thursday, Feb. 16, the College of William and Mary Police Department hosted an open forum in Sadler Tidewater A. Associate Vice President for Public Safety, co-chair of the Emergency Management Team and Chief of Police Deborah Cheesebro, Deputy Chief of Police Major Don Butler and other WMPD officers gave a presentation on general safety, the Good Griffin policy, the mass notification system and WMPD statistics. After a round of introductions, Cheesebro and Butler started the forum with a discussion of WMPD statistics on arrests and traffic stops in recent months. “Because what you can see in that time period, which is just short of two years, we’ve made 31 arrests,” Butler said. “Now, we’ve certainly apprehended more people committing crimes than 31, but as Chief Cheesebro mentioned, we have other ways of dealing with them other than arrest. And, you know, there’s some cases, [like] a felony case, we’re required to make an arrest, so we do so.” Butler emphasized the department’s collaboration with the Dean of Students Office. “The vast majority of our cases are referred to the Dean of Students Office, [and the
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Department of ] Community Values and Restorative Practices, so that you’re not going to court,” Butler added. “We’re not spending a lot of time in court. You’re getting educational materials from the Dean’s Office, and you’re not living with being arrested or jailed or locked up for the rest of your life.” Sergeant Carlos Moran, who supervises the WMPD day shift, said students should not be afraid to reach out to WMPD for assistance. “If something happens on campus, don’t feel as if you’re about to walk away in handcuffs or get a ticket or anything like that,” Moran said. “Don’t ever be afraid to call us if a friend had too many to drink. We’d rather get you first fast and get them to the hospital right away so they can get taken care of.” Butler then discussed the College’s Good Griffin policy. The policy provides academic and conduct protections for students and witnesses if medical assistance is sought for the consumption of alcohol or other substances. He noted that a similar policy has been enacted statewide and addresses situations that require bystander intervention policies. “Good Griffin, it’s not called that, of course, but there are laws now in Virginia where if you’ve got basically bystander intervention and trying to get someone life saving help and that
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Outgoing editor-inchief bids farewell
Former Editor-in-Chief Lulu Dawes shares final thoughts on her time at the Flat Hat. page 5
includes alcohol overdoses, drug overdoses, etc., the commonwealth exempts those folks from prosecution.” Butler said. “William and Mary has been doing that for a long time.” Butler was referring to a section of the Code of Virginia that mandates legal protections for individuals who seek out medical assistance for individuals experiencing an overdose of alcohol or marijuana and remain on the scene. Butler then laid out how WMPD has been navigating both the state and College policies. “We used to put out, and this was many years ago, just to clarify with students, that Good Griffin didn’t apply to the police department,” Butler said. ”And now we can’t say that anymore because the commonwealth of Virginia requires that and our folks support it and always have. So we’ve been doing it longer than most agencies. Good Griffin applies administratively for criminal charges for us and administratively the university.” As part of an effort to tackle substance usage issues, Butler said WMPD officers carry NARCAN nasal spray, which can be used to treat overdose emergencies. Butler said they have not had to administer the medication so far. Cheesebro then discussed the mass notification system, which the WMPD utilizes to relay crucial information to the College community. “What happens when we have something
that we think is an emergency, and we have a very specific idea of what that means: What that means is there has to be some sort of threat that we think is imminent on campus. And then, the timing of giving that out is going to vary a little bit because we have to make sure that the information we send to you is accurate,” Cheesebro said. Under the Clery Act, federal law requires the College to notify the community of certain incidents through timely warnings. According to Deputy Chief Butler, crimes covered by the law are called “Clery crimes.” These include generally serious offenses such as criminal homicide, sexual assault, robbery, arson, motor vehicle theft, aggravated assault and others. For a timely warning to be issued, the crime has to have occurred on campus. “The last thing we want to do is constantly be putting out stuff and then have to retract it and say, ‘Oh, that wasn’t real,’” Butler said. “You know, you get the cry wolf thing where people think it’s probably not real anyway. We want it to be when you see it, it’s real. You know it’s real.” Cheesebro emphasized the need to be careful and not tamper with any ongoing investigation that other jurisdictions are handling. READ MORE AT FLATHATNEWS.COM
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Committee for Contextualizing Landmarks and Iconography investigates College’s early histories. page 7
Kayla Beckworth founds new club dedicated to Black student athletes. page 9
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