Binghamton University has recently joined the ranks of other universities which allow gender-inclusive housing. This means that students would be able to live with anyone, regardless of gender or sexuality, including transgendered students.

According to bupipedream.com, the main purpose of gender-inclusive housing is to "accommodate for transgender and gender-queer students uncomfortable with being forced to identify as either male or female." The Rainbow Pride Union at Binghamton created a petition on change.org, and Residential Life contacted them within a day to discuss the new housing options for Fall 2014.

As a student body, we should be discussing the possibility for gender-inclusive housing at Southeastern. There are already 149 universities with gender-inclusive housing, according to an article at campuspride.com. So far, 29 states have this type of housing available, and Louisiana is not among them.

Recently, a state House committee voted to kill a bill to prohibiting housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. This could be because in areas that are more conservative, even if the policy may not affect them, people are going to backlash against things like gender and sexual issues deviating from tradition.

Obvious benefits to this would be to foster an open and accepting community on campus, to prevent gender and sexual discrimination and to make sure that the university is doing its best to make its students comfortable. A possible consequence could be people lying about their gender (which is psychological, as opposed to sex, which is physical) in order to room with the opposite sex, although I don't think that this will be a significant issue. Another possible consequence could be the discrimination of certain students. If there is a significant amount of people who are really against it, then there could be a rise in discriminatory acts, and this threatens campus safety.

I, on the other hand, think this can work. It is a great way to make students who may otherwise feel left out and unaccommodated feel welcome. Why not have an option to participate in gender-inclusive housing? This way, non-cisgendered students can be safe around people who accept them for who they are and feel more at home around them. Students who are not accepting of this do not have to be forced and can sign up for housing like before. Gender-inclusive housing would be a great stepping stone to providing a safe and welcoming environment for all students.