New York students lash lecturer over ‘female or shemale’ quiz

A furtive snapshot of a blurry projector screen revealed David Sorbello’s quiz to the world:

“Female or ‘shemale’, can you tell?” was the title. Then came a series of head shots, and the sociology students were told to choose between the two options.

Instead, dozens of students at the State University of New York’s Geneseo campus have demanded that Sorbello be fired, and the school’s president has announced an investigation into last week’s quiz.

Sorbello, an adjunct lecturer, had earned a smattering of mostly positive online reviews from students in his time at Geneseo: clear instructions and snappy lectures that made his introduction to sociology classes fly by.

Wednesday’s topic was gender, sexuality and sexual identity, sophomore Jillian Sternberg told BuzzFeed. Somehow, this led to the quiz Sorbello put up on the screen.

“We want you to write whether it’s female or shemale,” Sternberg recalled him saying. The student told Buzzfeed that Sorbello then commented on each photo as the class evaluated it: “Like, ‘I’m definitely not going to the bar with you.’”