The school cited requests from students.
QUICK FACTS:
- Methodist Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia has introduced a program that allows students a say in the pronouns used to identify them in school records.
- The Christian university is allowing students to pick from: “He/Him/His, She/Her/Hers, They/Them/Theirs, Xie/Hir/Hirs and Ze/Zir/Zirs.”
- The school is allowing students to make a choice as to what will be used in class rosters and on other official documents at the school.
- Over 100 Florida congregations recently filed a lawsuit to quit the United Methodist Church conference, making the Methodist church in America one of the traditional faiths that has been influenced by many secular social agendas, including the LGBT agenda.
- “[T]he policy change comes after requests from students and the university’s desire to make campus more welcoming to students of all genders,” the school’s press release states.
EMORY’S STATEMENT ON THE DECISION:
- “For more than 10 years, Emory students have had the option to designate their preferred name through the university’s official student information system, the Online Pathway to University Students (OPUS). Now, thanks to modifications within OPUS and a policy change effective this June, during PRIDE month, students will soon be able for the first time to designate their pronouns. Students will be able to make the change in OPUS prior to the start of the fall semester,” Emory’s press release stated.
- “In keeping with best practices, the policy change comes after requests from students and the university’s desire to make campus more welcoming to students of all genders. Respect is also part of the equation for Dona Yarbrough, assistant vice president of Campus Life and a consultant to the Designated Pronouns implementation team,” the release went on to say.
- “The introduction of pronoun selection is part of a larger move on behalf of the university to further understand student identity. Later this summer, the Student Characteristics project will launch, providing options within OPUS to share data about gender and sexuality, first-generation status, military-affiliated status, religious/spiritual identity and ethnicity. More information about this project and related functions within OPUS will be shared in the coming month.”
BACKGROUND:
- That comes after multiple instances of certain churches running from the association’s leadership’s liberal agenda.
- ‘LGBT Life’ school office representative Danielle M. Bruce-Steele told the Emory News Center that the transition “will push the university forward to even greater inclusion of our LGBTQ community members.”
