‘There is change happening’: historically black colleges tackle LGBTQ rights
Although Morehouse College decided to admit transgender men, progress is slow because of the colleges’ roots in black churches
In Atlanta,the South’s self-described “gay black mecca”, Morehouse College, an historically all-male black college, said last week it would, for the first time, allow transgender men and “individuals who self-identify as men, regardless of the sex assigned to them at birth” to be considered for admission from 2020 onwards, according to a statement .
The changed policy is a relatively new concept among the United States’ historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Most HBCUs have roots in religious establishments, due to the efforts of black churches to create universities for formerly enslaved African Americans at the end of the civil war. That religious background means many campuses remain steadfastly socially conservative.