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MSU's Board of Trustees voted Friday to add gender identity to the list of protected categories in the university's anti-discrimination policy.
Jordan Furrow said it was a great feeling.
"It's nice to know that on paper, transgender people are protected from discrimination on this campus," said Furrow, co-founder of Phi Tau Mu, a campus organization for female-to-male transgender students.
"It's really important for community members on campus to hear from the administration that it's not OK to discriminate against people."
A full, practical explanation of how that will be implemented is being developed.
Gender identity has been part of the university's anti-harassment policy since 2003. But discussions of adding it to the anti-discrimination policy had foundered, in part, on concerns about "the implications that this policy change would have on dorm assignments on facilities access, on who's going to use what bathroom, quite frankly," said Lauren Beach, a senior who headed an ad hoc committee working on the issue.