Housing program criticized

UNC’s newly approved gender-neutral housing option won’t begin until next fall — but outside groups are already protesting the program, calling it unfair.

The University’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved the proposal for gender-neutral housing earlier this month. The initial pilot program will have space for about 32 students to live in mixed-gender suites and apartments, but not in mixed-gender rooms.

Terri Phoenix, director of the University’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Center, said the school’s gender-neutral housing coalition will make future recommendations based on the pilot program.

“If there’s still a need to have mixed-gender housing by rooms, then we will of course advocate that,” Phoenix said.

The coalition originally advocated for mixed-gender rooms and began garnering student support for that option in spring 2011. When the coalition conducted a survey last year, 716 students said they would be interested in gender-neutral housing.

Phoenix said administrators will try to accommodate all applicants’ safety needs.

The coalition proposed gender-neutral housing with the safety of LGBT students in mind, said Kevin Claybren, student coordinator of the coalition.

Yet two state organizations — the N.C. Values Coalition and the Christian Action League of North Carolina — have opposed any form of gender-neutral housing, regardless of how administrators aim to phase in the policy.

“LGBT students have a right to safety, that is true, but the University can enforce their safety just like it can of any student regardless of whether they’re gay or straight,” said Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the N.C. Values Coalition.

She said gender-neutral housing will result in the University granting certain students a special privilege, potentially violating the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

But UNC law professor Maxine Eichner said she expected the opposite argument — that not offering gender-neutral housing violates equal protection for LGBT students.

Even if mainly LGBT students use gender-neutral housing, the program should not violate equal protection as long as all interested students can receive the program’s benefits, she said.

Fitzgerald also said gender-neutral housing could be a slippery slope that leads to couples living together — especially if UNC eventually allows mixed-gender rooms.

But Claybren said UNC is right to adopt a preventative policy to address LGBT students’ concerns about harassment.

Ultimately, safe housing is not a privilege, he said.

“This is an obligation for students that have been duly admitted,” he said. “Just one student at the University that does not have safe housing is a problem.”

Contact the desk editor at state@dailytarheel.com.