Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, is allocating a group of dorm rooms specifically for LGBT students, as part of the school’s Living Learning Communities program, reports WTKR Channel 3.
Students with similar majors or interests are already offered the option of living together, ODU is just adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the list. Queer students will be housed in one of nine rooms inside a larger residence hall.
But is segregating LGBT college kids the way to go? How will it prepare them for life in the real world, where they might be the only lesbian or gay in the neighborhood? And will signing up for designated housing put a target on the backs of kids still navigating the coming-out process?
“Living on a floor with people who may not be accepting… you take that into consideration,” says Ellen Neufeldt, ODU’s vice president for student engagement. “Housing is open to everyone who applies. This isn’t going to change that.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
We hope Neufeldt has also taken into consideration the all-but-inevitable hookups that will happen in a gay dorm. That’s a lot of drama for one R.A. to handle.
What say you, graduates of Queerty U? LGBT dorms: Pass or fail? Turn in your answers in the comments
Photos: Old Dominion University
Nathan
Half of my floor was gay as it was.
MKe
I think something has to be done. We’re just hitting a wall. All this thinking about the Clementi/Ravi case, and my own memories of being a college freshman… It’s just too hard for some gay students to share a room with straight people. These aren’t adults, they’r ein the process of becomming adults. It’s time for this option, but separate but equal is scary too.
Lorri Gillett
You mention ‘inevitable hook-ups’, people are going to hook-up whether they’re in co-ed, lgbt or dorms for male or female only! I feel this is a great idea. They would the support of other lgbt students that could help them w/the ‘coming out’ issue. Helping them deal with ‘targets’ placed on them making an easier ‘transition’. If ‘bullying’ & ‘targeting’ against lgbt were discussed more in earlier school-age children there would no need for seperate housing. Like making ‘Bully’ a PG-13 movie that could reach the younger generation instead of an R rating. That was the whole point of making that movie,reaching the youths where early bullying starts!
Kurtsa
Could very well be useful and good for LGBT students making them be more comfortable with a more accepting society. Students surrounded by those they know will accept them is always a good thing.
toronto_gay
I think there could be some clarification about this. I am an RA in Canada and the “Living Learning Community” model is not about segregation. Students would have to specifically indicate that they would be interested in being apart of a community like this. I don’t think this solves any of the issues LGBTQ student face, but I think it is helpful when students are navigating their transition into University life. I also think that a community like this would offer a very cool opportunity for students to learn more about gay history and activism.
Stephanie
I have to disagree with this option. I came out to my roommates freshman year in a
Catholic college and it was definitely an interesting experience. There
needs to be available LGBT resources and programming on college campuses.
Residential Halls personnel should be providing adequate LGBT support and safe zone
training is just the start. However, separate housing does not promote diversity
and people have to negotiate among different identities. If safety is the primary
concern then establish a task force that incorporates the stakeholders and
all the major factions of the university.
Chris S.
Well, living-learning communities (not necessarily queer-themed ones) have been researched pretty extensively and go pretty far towards improving learning outcomes for students, so I don’t really have a problem with this sort of thing. Besides, you know how dorm floors have social committees and crap to plan activities? Well, now the committee for this particular dorm or floor can host queer-themed events that may not have happened on a floor with only one or two people from the LGBT community. (Same principle as majority-minority congressional districts, I guess.)
Adrian
In the “real” world some gays flok to one another creating “ghettos” such as the Castro, Wilton Manors, Chelsea, etc what’s the difference if they start early in collage doing the same?
Brandon H
I think we are forgetting that these are adults age 18+, and if they want to sign up for a gay-only floor then I don’t see the problem. As long as it’s not compulsory.
I would have done it, might have got a little more action in college.
ek
Nine rooms? Rooms? That is not very many rooms. How small is this university?
William
Yeah lets group them all together. Easier to take out with explosives.
cwm
in my school the nerd–ahem, I mean RPG (role-playing gamers) contingent had their own area on campus. so an LGBT area seems like kind of a yawn.
granted, that place had a surprisingly homogenously leftist student body; student-on-student homophobic attacks were unheard of. in a more conservative environment it could be a stigma, or worse.
Hyhybt
So long as it’s completely optional (and it is) I don’t see any rational way this could be presented as a problem.
Rob
They’ve had this at other universities and it works out fine.
It’s completely optional too. At the university I attended I was out as bisexual but I didn’t want to live in the LGBT dorm and neither did most of my LGBT friends but it was an option if you wanted it. Just like there are options for dorms where you can live where it’s going to be very quiet and conductive to studying and a dorm where if you live there you’re not allowed to drink any booze at all or party in.
They even had LGBT frats and sororities but I didn’t join any of those.
Fae
well from what i am reading, its an option not a demand. Back where i went to college we had an all female dorm, that was optional too. I can see both sides of this issue, but i do not see an issue if it is optional, it can provide support and safety, but at the same time everyone knows that is where they are…hmmm…
Jessica
I am an ODU student and I think it’s really interesting and somewhat progressive that ODU is taking this step. When I first went to VCU I had a homophobic roommate and it was really traumatizing and complicated for my first college experience. Knowing that the person I’m rooming with is gay as well might have changed things and it’s optional, not required that you stay there. At least someone is taking this factor into consideration!
Shannon1981
I definitely would have lived in a gay dorm in college. My roomie second year was a ‘phobe and it was hell.
To be frank, I am very uncomfortable in closed in spaces with straight people. You never know how they REALLY feel about you. You just don’t.
Michael
While separate living communities designated for LGBT students might make the transition to college and dorm life easier for many, it would rob students of one of the most important lessons gained from attending an institution of higher education: learning to confront, engage, and even befriend others who have upbringings and belief systems different than your own. The life lessons learned from defending your beliefs and identity, and being proud of who you are, sometimes in spite of what those around you may believe, are priceless. As someone who has lived in university dorms for three years as both a resident and an RA, I can say that diversity is absolutely key to the educational mission of dorm life. Not only will the education of LGBT students be lessened by their (albeit, voluntary) segregation into separate dorms, but so too will the education of straight students who may have otherwise been roomed with a gay or lesbian. This is absolutely the wrong approach.
Adam
They offer LGBT housing at my university and I think it’s a good thing. For some people, college is the first time they are around other openly gay people, and it’s important to develop a community and a support base so that we don’t have more cases like Tyler Clementi.
DonsterNYC
I have never heard such idiocy in my life. “We hope Neufeldt has also taken into consideration the all-but-inevitable hookups that will happen in a gay dorm. That’s a lot of drama for one R.A. to handle.” Was Dan in a coma from 18 to 22. Everyone knows that kids at this age will find a hookup regardless of their living arrangements. I was housed with a straight senior when I was a freshman. That didn’t stop me in the least. I was VERY creative and the locations were endless. I used the green room in the university theater often. Haul a couple of cushions from the pews in the student chapel behind the altar and no one would ever interrupt you! My roommate left many weekends to be with his fiance and that was really convenient. A couple of friends with off-campus apartments never minded if crashed once in a while and that even turned into a great 3-way once. And, then there was always the back seat of my car. The point is all kids will have sex regardless of their sexuality.
JDSwell
This is not “separate but equal.” This is optional alternative housing. “Separate but equal” implies forced segregation, not elective segregation. The two things, from a rights, perspective are completely opposite.
Simone
Having lived in a huge coed dorm at the tender-for-us age of 21, I think having the option might have saved me a great deal of heartache — some harassment but mostly extreme alienation. So unless LGBT students are being forcibly relocated, I say good idea.