UA-Fort Smith silences student
Transgendered woman told to stop class lectures.
by Cheree Franco
http://www.arktimes.com/gyrobase/ua-fort-smith-silences-student/Content?oid=2213640Over the 2011-2012 academic year, Jennifer Braly, a University of Arkansas at Fort Smith psychology major with a 3.58 GPA, has given roughly 20 guest lectures on gender identity disorder (GID) to psychology and sociology classes on campus. Her lectures are meticulously researched and accompanied by a power-point presentation, but Braly's true qualification — what sets her lectures apart from other undergraduate reports — is her personal experience with GID. Braly was born a male, but a year ago, at age 36, she began taking hormones, had her name and gender changed on legal documents and assumed her new identity as a female.
Braly says her lectures have been well received, and several students have gone out of their way to e-mail positive feedback. One professor, Dr. Nicha Otero, wrote a letter of recommendation, chronicling the merits of her presentation, and its success at "open[ing] the doors to a greater understanding and appreciation of this too often misunderstood disorder."
But on April 19, Braly received an e-mail of a different sort from Dr. Rita Barrett, the chair of the psychology department:
