WELLESLEY, Mass. — Until last year, Ninotska Love would have been barred from attending Wellesley College. She’s an accomplished student who has persevered through hardship, but under longstanding rules, the college would have rejected her.
Now the rules have changed. This week, Love will become one of the first transgender women to attend Wellesley in the school’s 147-year history.
“For me to be accepted to one of the best colleges for women in the nation, it is a big validation of the person that I have become. At first I couldn’t believe it,” said Love, 28, who was born in Ecuador but fled to the U.S. in 2009 after being kidnapped and threatened because of her gender identity. “I’m so thankful to be here.”
Her arrival on campus reflects a quiet but momentous shift that’s taking place at a wave of women’s colleges that have begun allowing trans women. But even as many schools embrace shifting views on gender, some have been reluctant to change amid lingering differences over the role of women’s colleges.
Since 2014, at least eight women’s colleges have moved to allow trans women, starting with Mills College in Oakland, California. Joining Wellesley in 2015 were Smith, Bryn Mawr and Barnard colleges, the last of the so-called Seven Sisters women’s colleges to make the change. Advocates say others have likely done so without advertising it.
On Tuesday, Spelman College, an HBCU that is also only one of two that are an all-women’s college, released an email statement saying the school will admit trans women beginning with the 2018-2019 academic year.
“Like same-sex colleges all over the country, the College is taking into account evolving definitions of gender identity in a changing world and taking steps to ensure that our policies and plans reflect those changes in a manner that is consistent with our mission and the law,” said Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell, Spelman’s president, in the email statement.
