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Becoming transgender convinces student to accuse former lover of sexual assault
To avoid him in the men’s room
sexual assault
BRIAN BENSIMON - UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS-AUSTINFEBRUARY 23, 2017
To avoid him in the men’s room
When “Nathan” and “Melanie” hooked up on Memorial Day weekend in 2014, neither could have imagined they would still be talking about their sexual encounter two years later – or that Melanie would now identify as a man.
That transgender transition, more than a year after their sexual relationship had ended, led Melanie to tell Michigan State University that Nathan had groped her without consent after their consensual sex.
Nathan plans to sue the university in federal court for violations of due process in its adjudication of their dispute, his lawyer told
The College Fix.
Her client is a “very strong feminist coming from a progressive family,” Deborah Gordon said.
The ongoing dispute over the “one-time, non-consensual touching” was told in exhaustive detail last month by
Bridge, a magazine published by the Center for Michigan, a state think tank.
For all the disagreement about the nature of their final encounter, both students have largely the same account of events.
Breast touch after sex is ‘assault’
According to
Bridge’s
timeline of events, the two met in October 2013 at a male feminist group dedicated to “raising consciousness” for men supportive of feminism. It’s not explained why Melanie, who still identified as female, was at a male group.
They started dating soon after, and Melanie initiated sex with the virgin Nathan. Though she was “frustrated” by Nathan’s refusal to call her his girlfriend, their relationship remained sexually active through the summer.
Everything went downhill on the night of their final sexual encounter over Memorial Day weekend, which started with Melanie sharing a nude photo and describing her “frisky” mood to Nathan.
They tried to have sex in a parked car. When a bystander started knocking on the window, Melanie felt “embarrassed and upset.”
She told Nathan the incident brought up a previous abusive relationship and that she didn’t want to have sex again that night.
After they met friends for dinner the same night, Nathan reached beneath her shirt and bra, briefly “touching her breast.” Melanie quickly rejected his advances and Nathan complied.
It was the last time they would talk to each other, and that single unwanted touch would form the basis of Melanie’s complaint to Michigan State 16 months later. She texted Nathan the next day, scolding him for having “groped me after I’d told you I didn’t want to do anything more.”
Echoing a declaration she made to her poetry class right before she started transitioning, Melanie insisted to
Bridge magazine that Nathan “did sexually assault me” in that one moment.
The publication’s report was based on an in-person interview with Melanie and interviews with Nathan’s mother and his lawyer Gordon, as well as university documents and a transcript of Nathan’s interview with the investigator.
...
Nathan’s lawyer Gordon challenged the second report, saying its own description of Nathan’s actions did not rise to the “severe, persistent or pervasive” level required by school policy.
The university nevertheless ruled against Nathan in October, saying he had violated the sexual harassment policy, even while dropping the groundless “pushed” claim.
...
Gordon expressed frustration with how the university handled the case, telling
The Fix that it was “not a real criminal procedure” and the process “doesn’t give people the right to be heard.”
She noted that “these guys don’t get to confront their accuser” under the Title IX interpretation released by the Department of Education in 2011, which changed many rules around how colleges must handle sexual-assault claims.
Nathan is “terrified” by the hardships he has suffered since he was accused and then found responsible, Gordon said. The investigation has had “huge implications” on her client’s future career, including at least one lost job opportunity.
Michigan State is “trying to make an example out of everyone,” she said.
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http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/31344/
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