After being offline for almost three months, Northwestern’s Gender and Sexuality Resource Center webpage has been restored, but with sweeping changes — the latest indication of the University falling in line with federal directives.
Since late February, the GSRC’s web page has redirected users to NU’s Community & Belonging webpage. Following the webpage’s restoration, The Daily has identified the removal of a significant amount of inclusive language related to the LGBTQ+ community, as well as resources for navigating finances, laws and healthcare.
The changes come in the wake of the Trump administration’s crackdowns on diversity, equity and inclusion at universities nationwide.
“Northwestern is currently reviewing its policies and programs and updating our websites to ensure we meet all federal and state law requirements,” a University spokesperson wrote in an email to The Daily.
On the GSRC’s home page, the picture of rainbow lights on Deering Library that greeted users has been replaced with a photo of the aurora borealis. Underneath, the GSRC’s mission statement has been scrubbed of the words “queer” and “queer liberation and advancement” and now reads, “The GSRC supports all students working toward personal and community empowerment and awareness.”
Other labels on the homepage, including “NU LGBTQIA+ Events,” “Faces of Pride” and “GSRC Newsletter,” have been rebranded and replaced as “Events,” “Calendar” and “Newsletter.”
The Daily found the term “LGBTQIA+” was removed across the website, and mentions of “queer,” “lesbian,” “ace,” “poly” and “the entire LGBTQIA+ student community” have been removed from the “Get Involved” tab.
The description of various student affinity groups relating to the LGBTQ+ community has also been modified.
For the Rainbow Alliance, which was once described as “Northwestern’s undergraduate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, asexual and ally group” has been rebranded as “a barrier-free, undergraduate LGBTQIA+ and ally student organization.”
Despite changes to the GSRC website, a University spokesperson said NU’s support of LGBTQ+ community members has not changed, and the University is committed to fostering a welcoming environment.
The website’s “Resources” tab seems to have experienced the most significant revisions. Mentions of hormone therapy and identity-affirming surgical options have been completely removed. A link to the Northwestern Medicine Gender Pathways Program, which provides gender-affirming care to patients, was left in place on the webpage, but any description of the program has been wiped.
The removal of this information is “heartbreaking,” said Dr. Sumanas Jordan, director of the Gender Pathways Program. Resources about and access to gender-affirming care is crucial for LGBTQ+ individuals’ well being, Jordan said.
“When you start to talk about transitional care, including hormone therapy and surgeries, certainly the evidence has shown that people do better,” Jordan said. “They have better psychosocial outcomes. They have better physical outcomes. They’re able to form adaptive behaviors, and again, just live a much more healthy lifestyle.”
Other resources regarding legal, housing and food access, along with the entire “Education” tab, have also been scrubbed, eliminating links to external information about parent and family resources, tips for coming out, advice for navigating laws and data on trends regarding gender and sexuality. A link to the GSRC Fund has also been removed.
Mentions of past staff members, including Devin Moss, the LGBT Center’s (renamed the GSRC in 2015) first full-time staff member, have been erased throughout the webpage. A page that once read “Our Team” has been replaced with “GSRC Part-time Positions.”
Under the “University Initiatives” tab, mentions of “Gender Inclusive Initiatives” have been removed, including the Gender-Queer, Non-binary, and Trans Task Force, which was created in 2018 to recommend gender-inclusive strategies to faculty to foster a more welcoming campus culture.
The old website described how the GQNBT Task Force is guided by the GSRC’s LGBTQIA+ Student Advisory Board. Now, attempts to look up the GQNBT Task Force or the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion redirect users to the Office of Community Enrichment web page.
With these sweeping changes, Jordan said it is important to remember that the services themselves are not being removed, just the visibility of them. The knowledge is still out there, even if access to it has been limited, and maintaining it for the future is important, Jordan added.
“Knowledge is power,” Jordan said. “It always will be, whether it is in the spotlight or it’s not, and anybody of trans or nonbinary experience knows and recognizes that this is a very nuanced time to be who they are.”
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