Cornell University funds a “Life Transitions Closet,” which provides students with “gender-affirming clothes,” according to the university’s website.
Five “mini-grants” amounting to $1,000 each are awarded each year from the university’s Belonging At Cornell grant program.
“QGrads (LGBTQ+ Graduate Student Association) and Trans Empowerment Programming at the LGBT Resource Center will collaborate to offer a donation-based community closet with gender-affirming clothes to queer, trans, and non-binary students who are going through a transitory period of gender identity and expression,” the university website reads.
One of the project leaders, Yue Zhang, a Ph.D. student, says he was disappointed that no such clothing repositories existed when he started at the school in 2022. (RELATED: Cornell University Makes Massive Payout To Students Denied In-Person Classes During COVID)
“There’s plenty of people who, for any number of reasons, can’t get a hold of a wardrobe they feel fits them,” Zhang told the Cornell Sun.
Attn @Cornell Grad Students – check out the new “Belonging at Cornell: Grant Program for Graduate & Professional Degree Students! Proposal Due Nov. 7. More details athttps://t.co/2jAP0wsOqO@CornellGrad @CUFutureFaculty @OPD_Cornell pic.twitter.com/p9bjC628ZK
— Cornell OISE (@CornellOISE) October 7, 2022
“I spent all of high school completely in the closet,” Zhang said. “As soon as I started undergrad, I made as many transitions as I could.”
“I identify as genderqueer myself, and finding clothes that affirm that gender identity is super important. I do believe that the transformation comes from both inner to outer and outer to inner,” another project leader, Gundeep Singh, said. “[Having] other people see you as who you want to be seen [as] is something that clothes and accessories can serve a purpose for.”
Cornell did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.