i'm (vaguely) famous.
dude. usa today (well, not today. several weeks ago.). check it out-
USA TODAY
June 22, 2004, Tuesday, FINAL EDITION
Mary Beth Marklein
GENDER NEUTRAL COMES TO CAMPUS
Coming this fall to colleges and universities nationwide: gender-neutral
housing, in response to a rise in activism in support of transgender students.
At the University of Southern Maine, for example, about 35 students on the
Gorham and Portland campuses have signed up for housing in which members of the
opposite sex can live together and share a private bathroom. Oberlin College in
Oberlin, Ohio, will designate a communal bathroom as open to any resident in
halls with at least three communal facilities. And Sarah Lawrence College in
Bronxville, N.Y., is allowing men and women to share suites and bathrooms if
they want to.
Meanwhile, a small but growing number of schools -- the University of
Chicago, Beloit (Wis.) College and McGill University in Montreal among the most
recent -- are designating gender-neutral restrooms in key areas of campus.
Such efforts are part of a larger national movement aimed at serving the
transgender population -- people "who live all or substantial portions of their
lives expressing an innate sense of gender other than their birth sex,"
according to the Human Rights Campaign, a national group devoted to sex and
gender issues.
Most people don't have to think about whether to use a men's or a women's
room, "but if you're transgender, either option may lead to harassment," says
Jody Marksamer, an attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San
Francisco. The movement already is inspiring ridicule: Young America's
Foundation, devoted to developing conservative leaders, last year named as the
"most shameful campus event" the creation of a gender-neutral hall at Wesleyan
University in Middletown, Conn.
Campus officials can't say how many students are taking advantage of the
revised policies -- they don't require transgender students to identify
themselves. At most, they say, a handful have done so.
But USM residential life director Denise Nelson says the change benefits
others, too, including heterosexual couples, siblings who request shared
quarters, or friends -- a gay man, say, and a heterosexual woman. "We're trying
to create a housing option that solves more than just one population's needs,"
she says.
Some administrators, hoping to ease parental anxieties or avoid the wrath of
critics, stress that participation is voluntary. "No one will be placed in an
area they have not chosen," says Cathy Kramer, associate dean of student affairs
at Sarah Lawrence.
Freshmen typically aren't eligible for such plans. But officials at several
schools, including Brown, Tufts and American universities, say they will work
with incoming transgender students who request special accommodations just as
they would with students with allergies or asthma. They might get single rooms
with private baths, or be paired with someone who agrees to the arrangement.
In most cases, the call for gender-neutral facilities comes from students --
usually members of campus groups for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
students.
"We didn't storm the office (but) definitely the push came from the students,
" says Kestryl Lowrey, 18 , a rising sophomore at Lewis & Clark College in
Portland, Ore., which is expected to have a gender-neutral housing program in
place by fall 2005.
Administrators aren't necessarily quick to respond, however. The Lewis &
Clark campaign began nearly two years ago, Lowrey says. A transgender student at
the University of Massachusetts at Amherst tried to bring gender-neutral
bathrooms to campus a few years ago, but that effort seems to have lost steam.
USA TODAY
June 22, 2004, Tuesday, FINAL EDITION
Mary Beth Marklein
GENDER NEUTRAL COMES TO CAMPUS
Coming this fall to colleges and universities nationwide: gender-neutral
housing, in response to a rise in activism in support of transgender students.
At the University of Southern Maine, for example, about 35 students on the
Gorham and Portland campuses have signed up for housing in which members of the
opposite sex can live together and share a private bathroom. Oberlin College in
Oberlin, Ohio, will designate a communal bathroom as open to any resident in
halls with at least three communal facilities. And Sarah Lawrence College in
Bronxville, N.Y., is allowing men and women to share suites and bathrooms if
they want to.
Meanwhile, a small but growing number of schools -- the University of
Chicago, Beloit (Wis.) College and McGill University in Montreal among the most
recent -- are designating gender-neutral restrooms in key areas of campus.
Such efforts are part of a larger national movement aimed at serving the
transgender population -- people "who live all or substantial portions of their
lives expressing an innate sense of gender other than their birth sex,"
according to the Human Rights Campaign, a national group devoted to sex and
gender issues.
Most people don't have to think about whether to use a men's or a women's
room, "but if you're transgender, either option may lead to harassment," says
Jody Marksamer, an attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San
Francisco. The movement already is inspiring ridicule: Young America's
Foundation, devoted to developing conservative leaders, last year named as the
"most shameful campus event" the creation of a gender-neutral hall at Wesleyan
University in Middletown, Conn.
Campus officials can't say how many students are taking advantage of the
revised policies -- they don't require transgender students to identify
themselves. At most, they say, a handful have done so.
But USM residential life director Denise Nelson says the change benefits
others, too, including heterosexual couples, siblings who request shared
quarters, or friends -- a gay man, say, and a heterosexual woman. "We're trying
to create a housing option that solves more than just one population's needs,"
she says.
Some administrators, hoping to ease parental anxieties or avoid the wrath of
critics, stress that participation is voluntary. "No one will be placed in an
area they have not chosen," says Cathy Kramer, associate dean of student affairs
at Sarah Lawrence.
Freshmen typically aren't eligible for such plans. But officials at several
schools, including Brown, Tufts and American universities, say they will work
with incoming transgender students who request special accommodations just as
they would with students with allergies or asthma. They might get single rooms
with private baths, or be paired with someone who agrees to the arrangement.
In most cases, the call for gender-neutral facilities comes from students --
usually members of campus groups for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
students.
"We didn't storm the office (but) definitely the push came from the students,
" says Kestryl Lowrey, 18 , a rising sophomore at Lewis & Clark College in
Portland, Ore., which is expected to have a gender-neutral housing program in
place by fall 2005.
Administrators aren't necessarily quick to respond, however. The Lewis &
Clark campaign began nearly two years ago, Lowrey says. A transgender student at
the University of Massachusetts at Amherst tried to bring gender-neutral
bathrooms to campus a few years ago, but that effort seems to have lost steam.