650-yr-old dress code changed after transgender students’ campaign

June 24, 2015 5:45 PM

A campaign led by an American transgender student, Charlie Northrop, has forced St Catharine’s College at Cambridge University to re-write its 650-year-old dress code.

Charlie Northrop 25-year-old who transitioned from male to female

A campaign led by an American transgender student, Charlie Northrop, has forced St Catharine’s College at Cambridge University to re-write its 650-year-old dress code.

Northrop, a 25-year-old who transitioned from male to female earlier this year, campaigned to change the code to suit transgender students

The dean of St Catharine’s College, Mark Elliot, re-wrote the dress code to accommodate transgender students and express the hope that other colleges would follow suit.

Elliot revealed that, before the change, male students had to wear smart trousers and jacket with a tie at formal events while women had to wear a skirt and blouse or dress.

Burt students can now wear whatever they like as long as it was suitably smart dress.