A California nursing student claims she was expelled from a private Christian university after revealing herself as transgender on an MTV reality program.
As The Riverside Press-Enterprise is reporting, 24-year-old Domaine Javier, who has identified as female since she was a toddler, said California Baptist University officials told her she was expelled for falsely claiming on her application form that she is female. Letters sent to Javier from university officials say she was expelled for "committing or attempting to engage in fraud, or concealing identity" in university judicial processes.
"I didn't do anything wrong," Javier, who was to be a transfer student from Riverside City College (RCC) and had initially been awarded a $3,500 academic scholarship, is quoted as saying. "They said, 'On your application form you put 'female.' And I was like, 'Yeah, that's how I see myself.'" Javier will now return to RCC but cannot enter the nursing program until next fall. "This totally ruined my career path," she added.
Javier said she appeared on an April episode of "True Life" entitled "I'm Passing as Someone I'm Not" in an effort to raise awareness on transgender issues. "I am a girl trapped in a guy's body," Javier said on the show, which also showed a segment of her on a date with a man who cut off the relationship after she told him she is transgender.
Although California law prohibits employment, housing, government, insurance and other types of discrimination based upon gender identity, private universities like California Baptist University do not fall under such legislation. A university spokesman told the paper that the school doesn't comment on student disciplinary matters.