Northwestern offering ‘universal trans rights’ course this fall

Northwestern University in Illinois will offer a course on “universal trans rights” this fall as part of its Gender and Sexuality Studies Program.

The course, “Universal Trans Rights and Medical Procedures,” will discuss “the intersections, dialogues, refusals, and adoptions when thinking about the language of human rights and medical/surgical interventions.” Students will “examine cultural/historical conceptions of sex and genders as well as debates concerning bodies and diagnoses that took place during the drafting of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) and International WPATH Standards of Care, among others.”

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“Of particular interest will be the notion of universal trans rights, as recently articulated in UN Documents arguing that trans rights are human rights, against the backdrop of Gender Affirmation Surgeries (GAS) and Gender Affirming Care as it is presented in medical literature, advertised on the world wide web, and practiced both domestically and via the international medical travel industry,” the course description advertises.

The United Nations promotes gender ideology, as seen on its “Transgender people” page, where the organization states that it “affirmed the right” for transgender-identifying people to legally change their “gender identity” and have their new “gender identity” imprinted in documents like birth certificates. 

Among the “key elements for laws and policies on legal recognition of gender identity,” the UN states that such laws and policies must be “based on [the] self-identification and self-determination” of transgender-identifying individuals, recognize “non-binary identities,” and affirm children in their choice of “gender identity.” 

Widespread criticism of gender “transitions” for children points out that such “transgender treatments” are irreversible and cause irreparable and irreversible harm to children’s bodies. Certain “detransitioners” have sued those who conducted such medical procedures on them. 

National governments should also “provide trans persons with access to health care, including gender affirming procedures and treatments,” the UN asserts. 

The professor leading the Northwestern course is Jillana Enteen, a Professor of Instruction in Gender and Sexuality Studies and a faculty member of the Asian American Studies and Asian Studies Program.

According to her bio, her “publications concern online depictions of race, gender, sexuality, and nation in English by overlooked internet populations and the use of English language terms for sexualities and genders in the urban cultures of Thailand.” She is currently researching “gender reassignment surgeries” in Thailand.

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Her upcoming book, Import: Export: English Language terms for Genders and Sexualities in Thailand, looks at “the ways in which English is adapted and adopted by local Bangkok subcultures for specifically Thai purposes and how this study is situated within transnational sexualities studies.”

Many colleges and universities offer courses on transgenderism and gender ideology, including the University of Massachusetts, which offered a “Trans 101” course, and Russell Sage College in New York, which will start a “Gender-Affirming Voice Program” next year, teaching students, among other things, how to sneeze in a way that better matches their new “gender identity.” 

This fall, a course at Harvard University on the Byzantine Empire will feature discussions on “trans monks” and “genderless angels.”

Campus Reform contacted Northwestern University and Jillana Enteen for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.