UM students rally for transgender visibility after DEI cuts
Ann Arbor — More than 100 people gathered on the University of Michigan's Diag Monday to rally for Transgender Day of Visibility, an annual event that took on more importance for organizers after the university last week closed two offices dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Celebrated every year on March 31, the first Transgender Day of Visibility was organized 16 years ago by Rachel Crandall Crocker, executive director of Transgender Michigan, an education, support and advocacy group. This year, the theme of the Ann Arbor rally was liberation, said organizer and UM junior Pragya Choudhary.
"We need this, especially after the DEI cuts," Choudhary said. "I don't know how they expect to have that inclusion when they're closing down the offices that they decided would be in charge of that. … There's a world where we ... no longer need the office because people just started practicing the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion. But that's not what's happening here."
In Thursday's announcement, UM President Santa Ono and other university leaders said they were immediately closing the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and shifting the resources to other student programs, "such as financial aid, mental health resources, pre-professional counseling and other efforts that strengthen community, promote a sense of belonging and expand accessibility."
"I wanted people to come out and be like 'We're still here,'" Choudhary said. "We're still here, we're fighting for our rights, we won't stop fighting for our rights no matter what you try to do to us, or how you try to silence us."
This year's Day of Visibility also follows several efforts to erase the mention of transgender people on U.S. government websites and passports and remove them from the military in the first months of the Trump administration.
The university's decision to halt DEI efforts follows a Trump administration order that gave Michigan schools until the end of February to end the initiatives or risk their federal funding. The school said it would reallocate resources to student programs, but some professors and students said they felt betrayed by the decision.
At the rally, the UM Men's Glee Club performed Ruth Huber's "Courage to Be Who You Are" to honor the lives of transgender people who have died.
"We absolutely wanted to be able to perform and share our music and express our support for the trans community amid the current political environment and also amid the destruction of the DEI plans and the DEI office that just happened at this university," said Leo Parikshak, the first trans man to join the UM Men's Glee Club.
Rita Lee, president of the University Staff United labor union at UM, also spoke and critiqued attacks on transgender people from the Trump administration.
"DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion, includes the queer community and they just cut us on Thursday," Lee said. "We keep talking about fear, that organizing and voicing your dissent, exercising our constitutional freedoms puts a target on our backs, but the target should be on them for cutting us."
Shortly after taking office, Trump signed an executive order threatening to withhold federal funding for institutions that provide gender affirming care to people under the age of 19. But two federal judges have since separately blocked enforcement of the order, the Associated Press reported earlier this month. Identifying as transgender is not a mental disorder, and there is no evidence to suggest that it inherently puts adolescents at risk for mental illness, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Cora Chester, a graduate program coordinator in UM's School of Public Health, addressed the crowd in Ann Arbor on Monday and talked about the idea of resistance as an act of joy.
"In every transgression of your assigned gender, you say no to the expectation society places upon you, and you say yes to the value of exploring a life that could be your very own," Chester said. "Experiencing the joy of trans life and community requires rebellion as the first step. Without rebelling against the existing regimes of gender and sexuality, you cannot even be in a position to discover what brings you joy, much less find community."
University officials, including Ono and Provost Laurie McCauley, said in their message last week that they "recognize the changes (in cutting DEI programs) are significant and will be challenging for many of us, especially those whose lives and careers have been enriched by and dedicated to programs that are now pivoting."
UM Regent Sarah Hubbard, a Republican, supported the DEI office closing, as well as a Board of Regents vote to end the use of diversity statements in faculty hiring, which she argued promoted ideological diversity on campus and ended "litmus tests."
"We are eliminating bureaucratic overspending and making Michigan more accessible," Hubbard wrote on X. "I will continue to push for even greater financial support for talented students with financial need."
hmackay@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: UM students rally for transgender visibility after DEI cuts
