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Originally Posted by DGTess
Dumb question - how would they know? They'd have to either ask or surmise. Surmising could lead to all kinds of stereotypical reactions.
I ask this because I have an acquaintance with whom I've had several long discussions. To look at her, one would immediately think trans woman, but she has mentioned to me more than once hormonal issues she's had throughout her life. I certainly would not dream of asking.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bevinpiphi
They wouldn't know, per se...we don't ask for birth certificates, so it's all down to disclosure...and I feel like that gets sticky. The qualification for memberships in many organizations is, "are you a woman?" and since trans women are women...
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Speaking for Alpha Sigma Tau, our membership eligibility requirements currently read: "Membership in Alpha Sigma Tau is open to women and transgender persons who identify as women."
There are so many variations across organizations that there's really no way to say that a PNM would benefit from disclosing more information or disclosing less. Regardless, some chapter members are going to make their own assumptions and conclusions and base membership decisions based on those assumptions. That's just how it is sometimes.
To answer naraht's question, it really would come down to a question of what each national organization - and each chapter - is willing to accept. Membership selection is private, so we never really know why a PNM is selected or not.
Based on how you asked the question, I admittedly only thought about this in the sense of gender and religion (historically). But GPA is certainly a very good example of a similar situation where one org will bring a PNM through to the next round, and another won't.
All this being said, I would bet good money that all of our orgs currently have at least one transgender and one non-binary member, regardless of national policy.
