When you first go away to college, your living situation is important. Many colleges create extensive questionnaires for accepted students in order to match them with the best, most compatible roommate(s). As colleges become more impacted, this becomes even more important as many dorm rooms that used to be doubles are now triples. Getting along with your roommate is important as it can have a huge effect on your success in adjusting to college life. There are even whole books devoted to what to expect the first time you have a roommate and how to get along with them. One aspect of housing that has more recently come into play is gender inclusive housing. With the LGBTQ+ movement gaining power, it makes sense that colleges around the United States are being pushed to be inclusive, especially in their housing options.
In May 2016, the U.S. Department of Education and Justice invoked Title IX, the law which prohibits gender discrimination at schools who receive federal funding, to make it clear to colleges that students have the right to live in housing that reflects their gender identity (Malone, 2016). Colleges have been moving in this direction for some time, but with this announcement that federal funds could be withheld from schools who discriminated against individuals due to their gender identity, schools started moving up plans for gender inclusive housing on their campuses (Malone, 2016).
There were a handful of schools already implementing gender-inclusive housing, even before this announcement was made about the legal ramifications of not having housing equality on campus (Malone, 2016). Many of these campuses were in the Northeast and on the West Coast. Universities in the South and religiously affiliated schools have been slower to adopt these policies, if they are adopting them at all (Malone, 2016).
One reason that this movement for gender-inclusive housing has been less controversial than other social movements is that the younger population found on college campuses are typically more comfortable with the issue of gender identity (Malone, 2016). However, despite this higher level of comfort with the issue, not that many students are taking advantage of the gender-inclusive housing being offered (Malone, 2016). According to Georgia Tech, only 42 out of 4,100 students on their Atlanta Campus sought out gender-inclusive housing (Malone, 2016).
Gender-inclusive housing is a way for universities to support and show their acceptance of individuals belonging to a minority community. Gender-inclusive housing is also the best way to integrate this community into the college campus while ensuring their safety. One of the alternative suggestions was to build separate LGBTQ+ housing on campuses, but that would just create segregation of the LGBTQ+ community from the rest of the college campus (Rosaria, 2018). Gender-inclusive housing has the same benefits as separate housing, but without the negative effects (Rosario, 2018). It creates a safe environment for LGBTQ+ youth while promoting the idea of inclusion on campus (Rosario, 2018). The LGBTQ+ community should not have to be separated from the larger community to ensure their safety, they should be accepted for who they are, and gender-inclusive housing does this (Rosaria, 2018).
References:
Malone, S. (2016, June 10). College Dorms a New Front in U.S. Battle Over Transgender Rights. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lgbt-education-idUSKCN0YW15P
Rosario, I. (2018, May 21). Student Housing Inclusion. Retrieved from https://www.multihousingnews.com/post/student-housing-inclusion/