Gender expression is an issue that is often neglected when proponents of anti-discrimination legislation target the government’s statutes. While the effort to amend statutes to include protections based on race, sex and orientation has been met with great success, very few governmental entities include protections for citizens based on gender expression. To understand what gender expression is and to understand why it is important to effect protections for people on this basis, it is paramount to make a basic distinction between sex and gender. Sex and gender are words that are used interchangeably in everyday conversation, but should be thought of as discrete concepts. Sex is defined by physiological, functional and psychological differences between males and females. Gender is dependent on cultural norms that are used to define what is “masculine” and “feminine.” While nearly all governmental entities offer protection against sex discrimination, gender discrimination remains by and large susceptible to the animus of social players acting in capacities bearing the imprimatur of the state. Gender expression is the manner in which a person behaves in a social context. Very obvious examples are “butch” women and effeminate men. These groups are often denigrated for their failure to comport to social conventions. However, this idiosyncrasy fails to provide sufficiently legitimate reason to discriminate in employment, housing, education and other theaters of vital social interaction. With this in mind, student bodies at leading universities have taken the initiative in amending their constitutions to include protections for these groups. Students at Brown University, MIT, and many other top schools have been successful in the effort. Also, a few states include protections for citizens based on gender expression. At UR, Eastman students are nearing their goal of gathering enough signatures to amend the Eastman constitution. The Eastman effort has recently inspired the River Campus’s Pride Network to begin a signature-drive this semester, which in only one week has netted over 100 signatures. The Pride Network hopes to have the requisite 800 undergraduate signatures by the end of April. The Pride Network’s effort has inspired student organizations at other schools. Students at Vassar College have started their own petition drive to include gender expression among other constitutionally protected classifications at their school.Tipton can be reached at rtipton@campustimes.org.
