Garden City resident Aimee
Stephens became a funeral
director for one reason: to
help people. Despite facing
hardship in her personal life,
Stephens found comfort in
the knowledge she enabled
individuals to memorialize
those they loved.
Stephens,
a
transgender
woman, said she knew she
was a woman from the age
of five. After a lifetime of
suppressing
her
identity,
Stephens began to live as a
woman, dressing as a man
only while at work in the
funeral home’s distinct male
and female uniforms.
Stephens had worked at
R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral
Home in Garden City for
nearly six years. In 2013, her
lifelong
internal
struggle
with gender identity came to
a head, and Stephens decided
to announce her intention to
live fully as a woman to her
co-workers. In an interview
with the Detroit Free Press,
Stephens
described
the
moment she told her boss her
gender identity — through a
letter.
“We just went into the
chapel to talk … I gave him
the letter, he read it, he
folded it up and put it in his
coat pocket, and he said, ‘I’ll
have to think about this,’”
Stephens said.
She went on to recount the
moment her boss fired her.
“That was pretty much all
that was said for two weeks
… he comes back in one
afternoon and he says … ‘This
is not going to work.’ That’s
pretty much all he said, and
he handed me basically a
letter firing me and offering
me what I took it to be as hush
money to keep my mouth
shut, and basically sign away
any rights I may or may not
have,” Stephens said.
Instead of accepting the
money, Stephens sued with
the backing of the Equal
Employment
Opportunity
Commission,
a
federal
agency enforcing civil rights
law
against
workplace
discrimination.
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, October 10, 2019
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
About 56 students, faculty
and community members came
to Haven Hall Wednesday to
hear Morgan State University
professor Harold D. Morales
speak about his new book,
“Latino and Muslim in America:
Race, Religion, and the Making
of a New Minority.” The event
was sponsored by the Romance
Languages
and
Literature,
Global Islamic Studies Center,
Department
of
American
Culture, Multi-Ethnic Student
Affairs, Latina/o Studies and La
Casa.
Morales started off with
statistics of Latinx Muslim
representation in the United
States population. According
to Morales’s research, there is
a high concentration of Latinx
Muslims in Northeastern and
West Coast states, including
California
and
New
York.
In addition, he said by the
year 2043, the United States
will be the first nation where
the current racial minority
populations will outnumber the
racial majority population.
As an example of a prominent
Latinx Muslim, Morales shared
a video of Hamza Perez, a
Puerto Rican-American rapper
who converted to Islam. In the
video, Perez labeled himself as
“America’s Worst Nightmare”
because of his shared identities
as Puerto Rican, Muslim and a
rapper.
Morales said he disagrees
with the idea that being a
minority is a negative feature.
“So, he’s got all of these
things that are often portrayed
as negative stereotypes and
they’re lumped all together, and
all of a sudden, it’s amplifying
the
negativity
somehow,”
Morales said. “Why in the world
would you choose to increase
your marginality? Why would
you choose to increase the
discrimination that you will
experience? There are certain
assumptions that are being
made about what is lacking and
what is Islam or Islamic identity,
and I think that’s really telling
and important to keep in mind.”
This
month,
the
University
of
Michigan
announced the creation of
a faculty working group
dedicated to recommending
revisions to two Regents
bylaws
addressing
the
dismissal
of
tenured
faculty. The two bylaws
include
the
University’s
standard procedure in cases
of faculty dismissal, as well
as severance pay.
The
announcement
of
the
working
group
comes
after
School
of
Music, Theatre & Dance
Professor
David
Daniels
was
accused
of
sexual
assault by former student
Samuel Schultz in August
2018. Just a few months
later,
Andrew
Lipian,
another former student of
Daniels’s, filed a lawsuit
claiming he was sexually
assaulted
by
Daniels
in
March 2017. In July of
this year, the University
began the process of firing
Daniels, who was placed on
paid leave after Schultz’s
allegations
were
made
public.
GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 9
©2019 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
CL A SSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 B
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
Washtenaw
County sprayed
to combat the
spread of EEE
Deadly disease with no cure or vaccine
can lead to rare brain infections
When LSA junior Zoe Garden
arrived on campus this semester
as a transfer student, she had
completed
many
beginner
and
upper-level
courses
in
communications
—
including
an
entry-level
communication
studies course — at her previous
school.
Yet,
because
of
the
University of Michigan’s transfer
requirements, she found herself
enrolling
in
Communication
Studies 101 this semester.
“I always say that I feel like
a freshman here on campus,
because I obviously don’t know
the campus as well and stuff like
that, but sometimes being in these
classes with all these freshmen,
you just kind of feel like you’re
out of place,” Garden said. “You
come here to Michigan for more
opportunities, but I feel like I’m
being set back more than pushed
forward sometimes.”
Garden, who transferred to
the University from Oakland
University, a four-year college
located in Auburn Hills, Mich.,
said introductory communication
courses at the two schools were
comparable — both were 100-level
courses in the Communication
& Media department covering
similar subject matter.
Transfer
students
talk credit
challenges
ACADEMICS
ALEX HARRING
Daily Staff Reporter
Religion professor discusses book
on Latinx Muslim community
Dr. Harold D. Morales speaks at event in honor of Latinx Heritage Month
University
to consider
two tenure
revisions
ADMINISTRATION
Follow The Daily
on Instagram,
@michigandaily
A portion of northern
Washtenaw
County
was aerially sprayed to
combat the spread of a
mosquito-borne
virus
last
Saturday
night,
according
to
Susan
Ringler
Cerniglia,
Communications
and
Community
Health
Promotion Administrator
at the Washtenaw County
Health Department.
The
decision
to
conduct aerial spraying
came after the Michigan
Department
of
Health
and
Human
Services
contacted
WCHD
on
Sept.
29
about
the
spread
of
the
virus
called
Eastern
Equine
Encephalitis.
MDHHS
recommended
WCHD
and Livingston County
Health
Department
participate
in
aerial
spraying after an animal
with EEE was found in
neighboring
Livingston
County on Monday, Sept.
30.
Cerniglia said WCHD
was given short notice
about
the
proposed
spraying and ended up
participating
in
the
MDHHS-coordinated
spraying.
“As
a
local
health
department,
we
have
to
prioritize
reducing
their risk of a potentially
deadly
infectious
illness,” Cerniglia said.
When transmitted by
mosquitoes
to
another
organism, EEE can lead
to a rare brain infection.
According to the Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention,
the
virus
is fatal to 30 percent of
those infected. There is
no cure or vaccine for the
virus.
The CDC also noted
Dr. Harold D. Morales, associate professor at Morgan State university, discusses the changing demographics in the United States and the relationship between Muslim
and LatinX identities at the LatinX and Muslim in America Lecture at Haven Hall Wednesday.
Michigan woman takes case on
discrimination to Supreme Court
Aimee Stephens fired from job after telling her boss she was transgender
See TENURE , Page 3A
MICHAL RUPRECHT
Daily Staff Reporter
MADELINE MCLAUGHLIN
& BEN ROSENFELD
Daily Staff Reporters
JASMIN LEE
Daily Staff Reporter
DESIGN BY LAUREN KUZEE
See EEE, Page 3A
Individuals also cite
having to re-take entry
level courses, discuss
issues with graduation
See DISCRIMINATION, Page 3A
See TRANSFER , Page 3A
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
MICHAEL BAGAZINSKI/Daily
Faceoff
The Daily hockey beat
breaks down the season
» Page 1B
Working group formed
after SMTD Prof. David
Daniels accused of sexual
assault by students
LIAT WEINSTEIN
Daily Staff Reporter