Last month, Morehouse College, the only all-male HBCU in the country, announced that it will begin admitting transgender men in 2020. It was a historic moment for a school with a troubled history when it comes to queer inclusion.

Morehouse is one of the top-ranking HBCUs, with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leader Julian Bond and filmmaker Spike Lee among its alumni . A top producer of black men with doctorates in the nation, the school prides itself on shaping its students into scholarly “Morehouse Men,” destined to be leaders.

Morehouse’s new transgender student policy was an initiative of the new president, Dr. David Thomas. Upon starting his term, Thomas moved to clarify the admissions policy. He aimed to reflect changing attitudes on gender norms but made clear that "Morehouse remains a school for men," according to a statement provided to YR Media by Aileen Dodd, a Morehouse spokesperson.

The new policy states that beginning in the Fall 2020 semester, students “who live and self-identify as men, regardless of the sex assigned to them at birth,” can enroll at the school. However, the policy is explicit that transgender women are not welcome at the school: "Morehouse will not consider for admission women or those assigned male at birth who identify as women.” Dodd explained that if a current student transitions to a woman while at Morehouse, she would have to submit a written appeal and address why she would like to stay at “a school explicitly designed for men."