Recently I had a discussion with one of
my friends who attends school at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She
was telling me about a buzzfeed article she had recently read that listed UMass
Amherst as one of the twenty-five best universities for LGBT students. When I
asked her what amenities UMass provided the LGBT community to acquire this
ranking, I was shocked at the amount of resources they had to offer. They have
a LGBTQIA
resource center called the Stonewall Center and an organization called Pride
Alliance. They help students that are in the process of transitioning and even
have gender-neutral bathrooms around campus. This got me thinking about the
different resources JMU provides for the LGBT community and questioning whether
or not they are enough.
One of the amenities that UMass
provides for its transgender students that impressed me the most was their on-campus
gender-inclusive housing option. This option allows students to be able to room
with anyone, regardless of their gender identity. It was mainly created for
students who are transgender or do not identify as a gender. After doing some
research and seeing how many colleges are beginning to offer gender-neutral
housing, it made me disappointed that JMU does not provide this option, or
hasn’t made any apparent efforts to.
Being a transgender student at a college
where you are the overwhelming minority can be difficult enough, but moving
into a dorm with a bunch of strangers and being judged for your gender identity
can make matters even worse. The least JMU could do is to create a living space
where these students can feel safe and comfortable. Living with someone you
barely know as a freshman is nerve-wracking as it is, but having a roommate
that judges you or is not accepting of your sexual identity can be very
troubling. Another major issue is the possibility of having to live with a male
when you identify as a female or vice versa. Being put in that situation is
very unfair and can be extremely detrimental to a person’s emotional well-being.
One of the main arguments against
gender-inclusive housing is that it would allow all students, including
heterosexual couples, to have the option to live together. This could obviously
be a huge problem for various reasons. However, these students will most likely
be 18 or older, making them young adults that are completely capable of making
their own decisions. Not having a gender-neutral housing option seems flat out
ridiculous to me. The fear that heterosexual students will choose to room
together is not a valid reason to not offer gender-neutral housing.
While I acknowledge the fact that the
JMU community does make some efforts to support the LGBT by offering many
helpful and useful LGBTQIQA resources, such as The LGBT & Ally Education
Program and organizations such as Madison Equality, these are not merely
enough. Further action needs to be taken in order to make true progress. Implementing
plans to create a gender-neutral housing option is a great place to start. Offering
a gender-neutral housing option is essential to creating a safe and welcoming environment
on campus while ensuring the welfare and equality of all JMU students.
