Gay and lesbian groups at the University of Washington are pushing for a new type of dorm on campus. It's called Gender-Neutral Housing. They believe the new living arrangements could stop homophbia in residence halls.
About 5,600 University of Washington students rely on campus housing to get them through four years of college. But, for some students like Emily Juhre who she lives with can make all the difference.
"You know I'm gender variant right, OK, so I'm a female but I dress as a male so I was very scared about rooming my first year," said Juhre.
The University of Washington Residence Hall Student Association is gathering information to see if Gender-Neutral Housing, which is supported by many gay and lesbian student organizations, could work here.
Jennifer Gibbons who is ASUW Director of Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian, and Transgender Commission says the UW needs to start this type of housing.
"There's a lot of students who don't necessarily want to live in gender segregated housing that includes a lot of the queer community especially Trans students on campus, but also students that don't conform to typical gender norms," said Gibbons.
Sexual orientation would not be on the applications for a Gender-Neutral dorm, instead once students request that kind of housing, they can pick roommates of either sex that share interests. Gibbons says the hope is the plan would make for more harmonious living arrangements.
"They get into a room with their roommate and the roommate can often be homophobic or sometimes hostile and they have a lot of issues, but with gender neutral housing they'd have more of an idea of who they're going into with," said Gibbons.
The students believe one of the best places to start Gender-Neutral housing at the UW would be in one of the new dorms along Northeast Campus Parkway that are scheduled to open next fall.
RHSA President Emma Tessier says whether they're in new or older buildings, certain floors could be designated as Gender-Neutral.
"We really don't know which residence Halls we would be looking at, putting it if any depending again on how students feel about it," said Tessier.
Delaney Tognolini who is Director of Programming and Diversity says Gender-Neutral residence housing is extremely important for campus life.
"We want everyone this is their home so, this is just another effort we're trying to make everyone feel safe and welcome," said Tognolini.
Right now, the RHSA is getting input from students, UW's Administration hasn't signed off of on the idea. But, Emily Juhre says it would make her and her friends feel more comfortable.
"Living with people who you know are going to be more accepting and not judge you based on your gender or how you present yourself that can't be really good," said Juhre.
The Residence Hall Student Association is still going over data they collected from the survey they did on Gender-Neutral Housing. The body could vote on passing a resolution for it during winter quarter.
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