Gender Neutral Housing Essay

Gender-neutral housing allows college students to live with each other on campus regardless of their gender and sexual orientation ("Gender-inclusive housing at MIT", 2015). Some schools have recently pushed for gender-neutral housing on their campuses in order allow “transgender, gay, and lesbian students feel more comfortable with their living situations” (Koma, 2014). At the same time, some students and faculty members might believe that gender-neutral housing have more “negative implications” than positive ones (Alec, 2013). However, some students feel uncomfortable with the current state of traditional housing. Traditional housing might make a LGBTQ student feel uncomfortable living with a heterosexual student. In this case, gender-neutral …show more content…
Students and faculty members who oppose the housing plan believe that it might lead to cases of young males, who could be drunk and full of hormones, sexual assaulting young females (Alec, 2013). Although this scenario is not the case for every college student, people are still afraid of the possibility that someone might hurt them or their friends because students are given the option to live with anyone without any barriers between gender and sexual preference. At the same time, people who oppose gender-neutral housing are often seen as intolerable towards the LGBTQ community when it comes to discussions about supporting gender awareness in schools (Lockhart, 2010). Because some people view the opposing side as prejudiced against LGBTQs, most discussions about gender-neutral housing end with opposing side being disregarded. Consequently, people feel more concerned about the possibility of sexual assault as a silent majority (Lockhart, 2010). In order to promote gender awareness with the new housing plan, schools must address the concerns of the people who feel uncomfortable with the risk of someone getting