A panel of Cornell faculty discussed the recent executive orders targeting marginalized Americans and replied to LGBTQ+ students’ concerns in a town hall event on Tuesday evening at the Willard Straight Memorial Room. The LGBT Resource Center hosted this “LGBTQ+ Student Town Hall” alongside other student organizations like Haven, La Asociación Latina, QGrads and the Gender Equity Resource Center.
Tina Coyne, interim associate dean and director of the LGBT Resource Center, said the town hall took the form of a panel followed by a Q&A period in order to inform students of relevant legal, healthcare and campus-related information. The panel follows recent federal policy changes relevant to LGBTQ+ students, such as executive orders banning transgender people from serving in the military, limiting gender identity recognition to the binary sexes and deeming diversity, equity and inclusion provisions illegal.
Approximately 40 people attended the event with Ethan Davis MBA ’26 as moderator. Davis asked the panelists questions about services for LGBTQ+ students at Cornell and recurring concerns that panelists have heard from students regarding federal policy changes and how students can prioritize their health right now.
The panel included Coyne, Karen Williams, a counselor at Cornell Health and Gender Services’ interim coordinator, Rachel Clark, clinical director of Women’s and Sexual Health at Cornell Health and Prof. Chan Tov McNamarah, law.
McNamarah stressed that executive orders can be contested. Ones that are not under the president’s authority or are found to be unconstitutional, for example, cannot pass.
“As more and more policies are implemented, those policies will be challenged and the executive orders will be challenged,” McNamarah said. “In the coming months, we'll see a lot of challenges. Legal advocacy organizations are doing really good work, and we look forward to seeing what comes down the pipe there.”
Throughout the event, Clark emphasized that Cornell Health will continue to offer gender-affirming services. They still provide items like binders and tuckers for free, and Williams said free counseling services can be offered using fee waivers. A pamphlet detailing such services and advertising local LGBTQ+ organizations was offered to all attendees. At the end of the event, La Asociación Latina, QGrads, Haven, Johnson Out for Business and OutLaw advertised their groups.
Karys Everett ’25, political action chair of Haven, said it is “concerning” how little of Cornell’s resources for LGBTQ+ students are widely known.
“The administration has shown that it is in their capacity to address students' mental health concerns and address students directly … not only nationally, but internationally,” Everett said. “So, when there are palpable feelings within the queer community that students are expressing, it just seems a little odd that the administration hasn't been more proactive in letting students know that these resources exist and that they're available to them.”
At the end of the event, panelists answered pre-screened questions submitted in a google form by the audience during the event.
The first question referenced the changes of wording on Cornell Health’s gender-affirming care page earlier this year, where the University removed statements confirming that “New York State has legislation in place to protect access to gender-affirming care” and that they “do not anticipate any future changes to the services [they] provide.” The page now reads, “Cornell Health remains committed to providing gender-affirming services for students; and [they] are monitoring rapidly changing legal developments in this area which could affect individuals under 19.”
After the question was read, an audience member yelled, “Speak on it!” This was Adriana Vink ’27, a queer student and Progressives at Cornell outreach chair, who later said she found the town hall “tokenizing and insulting.”
“Sure, Cornell can continue its programming as it has before, but it's a time when it's really important for [Cornell] to stand up rhetorically for its students as well,” Vink said. “In a moment when speech is being penalized, Cornell's administration has the power to stand up for us in ways that we don't have to stand up for ourselves, and they're not utilizing that power.
Events like this, where students cannot participate in an open discussion, do not support students, Vink said. She emphasized that the format creates a layer of isolation between the administration and students that bypasses real action.
The fact that the town hall happened, however, was “very important” to Everett. In contentious times where people of marginalized groups feel unheard, the panelists’ support for queer students was “powerful,” Everett said.
“Having a space where it's not only safe, but it's welcome for people to just come and enjoy one another is very important,” Everett said. “There's been a lot of dehumanization of queer but specifically trans individuals in the media and in [the] government. So having a space that welcomes people and views them as people, … I think that's incredible.”
Shubha Gautam is a Sun contributor and can be reached at sg2563@cornell.edu.
