Get Transphobic Professor Out of the Classroom

David Sorbello, a NY college professor thought it would be funny to mock trans women. Sorbello has a history of using women and people of color as punchlines for his lectures, but he took it to a new level when he delivered a lecture where he forced his students to participate in an utterly ignorant and completely disrespectful guessing game entitled “Female or Shemale” during one of his classes.

Last year, 23 trans women were murdered.This year, with more than two months to go until the end of 2017, the number killed stands at 21. As a group, trans women face a higher rates of violence and the current statistics suggest the rates numbers aren’t declining. The state of trans rights in America are no laughing matter.

Yet, Mr. Sorbello thought his class would be funny, and even suggested the students be careful when getting drunk because they could go home with “the wrong one.”

This type of ignorance by a professor, someone who is charged with shaping the minds of our future leaders, has no place in academia. His class dehumanized an entire group of people and mocked their struggle and it is unacceptable.

Professor Sorello’s students’ shouldn’t be forced to endure more shameful lectures classes. It’s time SUNY Geneseo do what’s right and remove Mr. Sorbello from the classroom.