July 28, 2011 - 6:50pm
Students gather on Diag to show support for gender-neutral housing
BY VALIANT LOWITZ
Students gathered on the Diag yesterday morning to show their support for gender-neutral housing policies at the University.
The Michigan Student Assembly’s LGBT Commission, the Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Spectrum Center sponsored the event.
The University currently offers transgender students the option of gender-neutral housing on a case-by-case basis, a process that can often be time-consuming and littered with red tape. Yesterday’s rally aimed to show support for a new proposal for a gender-neutral housing option, a policy that is currently being considered by University Housing.
Co-chair of the LGBT Commission, Chris Armstrong, who was at the rally, said the current process for obtaining gender-neutral housing can often be difficult and unfair.
“If you were a transgender student, you could only get a single and had to pay the premium single rate,” he said. “We want to create a space where transgender students can feel safe in their environment.”
LSA freshman Jordan Sabolish said it’s time for the University of Michigan to catch up with other schools like Dartmouth College and Stanford University that already offer a gender-neutral option.
“It’s wrong basically,” he said. “Living without gender-neutral housing makes transgender students a special case rather than fully incorporating them into the community.”
Spokesman for University Housing Peter Logan, said Housing officials are discussing the policy with student groups like MSA and the Residence Halls Association before making any final decisions.
“The proposal brought forward is still in discussion, but now the discussion has been bringing the interest to a larger segment of the population,” he said. “We are interested to see what specific ideas are raised by other student organizations. We have sent the issue to a larger student population so that we will able to have a more informed discussion. But the proposal is certainly still being considered.”
Though yesterday’s event focused on gaining support for the housing policy, it is part of a larger event, Transgender Awareness Week, which aims “to promote visibility and awareness of transgender students on campus,” according to Armstrong.
Events will continue throughout the week and will end on Friday with Transgender Day of Remembrance, which will honor the memory of transgender students who have been lost to hate crimes.
