Meredith Ramirez Talusan seems to be an amazing young person. Here she is giving a TEDx talk in January:
Meredith is founder and director of the Ricefield Collective, an international aid organization now on hiatus while she and her coworkers try to finish their graduate work.
Meredith is a literature grad student at Cornell, having earned a literature undergrad degree and a Master of Fine Arts degree in photography at Harvard. She has applied for a professorial position at Cornell as well.
Meredith has a website: A Self Made Woman
As a scholar at Cornell, she gets free housing, as well as free meals.
But things have not been going well lately.
It all began after she came out as the first openly transgender resident at the Telluride House earlier in the year. Shortly after that, Talusan claims she was harassed and discriminated against by a housemate whom we will only refer to as "MB".
It’s because I’m transgender. I am always heckled. People come up to me and say, "you’re a man dressed as a woman," and they also say "you lost your penis."
--Talusan
Talusan soon filed a complaint before the housing administration against MB not only for these alleged harassments but for also reportedly bringing strangers to their shared home using a couch surfing website.
MB has been allowed by the association to remain as a resident of the shared home.
Meanwhile, the conflict worsened between the two when Talusan and her friends broke into an impromptu protest against her alleged violator chanting "this is what democracy looks like".
Within 48 hours we got an email, saying that we were suspended from the house. We cannot eat there. We can be in there and we have 24 hours to leave. So that was when I said "I’m not leaving."
--Talusan
Talusan is now battling the Telluride Association saying she should be able to keep her housing scholarship. Talusan accuses the housing administration of having double standards as a result of transphobia.
I’m working very hard. I’m struggling to have a better life. Just because I’m transgender, just because I don’t look like everyone else – I am being mistreated. I don’t complain but all this is happening to me. There seems to be no justice anywhere.
--Talusan
In an email to ABS-CBN News, Telluride Association President Amy Saltzman says they do not tolerate harassment, discrimination or threats to the safety or privacy of their students.
She says she cannot comment on the details of the investigation but they are working to provide housing for all parties involved.
Meredith has a petition at Change.org: Stop driving your first openly transgender resident from her home at Cornell University.