Letter to SkidNews, re: the floor

Dear editors:

Your cover story on gender-neutral housing was well timed and much appreciated. I would like to thank Mr. Bernstein for his feature article on the Gender and Orientation Safe Living Floor. He put forth exemplary amounts of effort, research, and sensitivity in penning this feature.

As the floor leader, I’d also like to clarify a few aspects of the floor, especially with regard to Mr. Alsup’s opinion piece following the feature article. As Mr. Bernstein stated, “the floor exists in order to provide a safe and affirming residential community for students of any gender identity or sexual orientation, and to educate the Skidmore Community about the topics of gender and orientation.” This is the mission of the floor, as written in our proposal. Signs on the seventh floor of Tower spell out a welcome to “ALL students, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.”

Clearly, the floor is not “a unique living space for students who are uncertain of, questioning, or feel differentiated by aspects of their gender and sexuality,” as Mr. Alsup claimed. In fact, I estimate that about half of the students living on the Safe Living Floor are heterosexual. We don’t know exactly how people identify, because most residents of the floor are cool enough not to use an “I’m straight, but” disclaimer when they discuss their residence on the floor and their concern for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and all Skidmore students.

Rigid gender roles and homophobia affect all students, not only those who self-identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. For example, according to a survey by the Safe Schools Coalition of Washington (available at http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/83000youth.pdf) 80% of public high school students harassed as gay actually identify as heterosexual. I have little doubt that this trend carries over into the college years. Homophobia affects people in many different ways: if they are harassed, people can become depressed or suicidal. In order to avoid being harassed, students may take actions such as avoiding certain activities they would otherwise enjoy, or avoiding close same-sex friendships. Anyone can be victimized because of their gender expression. If people think you’re a sissy, or that you “look gay” – all of that is about gender expression. You do not have to identify any particular way or be a member of any specific community. At least one heterosexual man I know of, Willie Houston, was actually killed for appearing to be homosexual.

This floor is not an exercise in segregation. Students who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, and everything else currently live in all parts of Skidmore’s campus. You couldn’t fit everyone on one floor! Incidentally, I was among the group of students who wanted a gender-neutral housing option at Skidmore, meaning that anyone who wanted to live in a gender-neutral suite could be housed with other students requesting the same option, anywhere on campus. The administration felt more comfortable restricting this option to a single floor. Why do we need a gender-neutral housing option at all? It’s not just because sex-segregated housing is based on the idea that everyone is heterosexual, or because non-heterosexual students risk getting stuck with virulently homophobic roommates, although these are factors. Housing divided into “male” and “female” suites forcibly excludes some students. Those students may be transsexual – meaning their gender identity, and perhaps current secondary sex characteristics, do not match the sex assigned to them at birth, which may still be their legal sex. They may also be transgender, genderqueer, or simply gender-nonconforming. When one person in a suite looks like they are the wrong gender to be in that suite, things can get very ugly. And if a student looks like they belong in a suite, but does not identify as the sex they are assigned, this will also be an uncomfortable situation for them. So, the very structure of sex-segregated housing is part of what threatens the safety of these students. In this way, a gender-neutral housing option is fundamentally different from other theme floors.

The basis for all community is agreement. This is definitely true at Skidmore, as any Residential Life staff member knows: every floor in every dorm on campus is supposed to forge their own “community contract” covering basic agreements that will help students live together, such as quiet hours. Since the Gender and Orientation Safe Living floor has a serious commitment to being a community, and a safe community for everyone at that, we just have a little more work to do with our contract. Our agreements show that we take our mission statement and goals seriously.

What does it mean to “create a social group concerned with a single set of issues in a localized living situation”? Why not ask the pioneers of Studentship/Citizenship, or the engineers of the First Year Experience program, both of whom wanted to group members of the same classes into the same dorms? On the seventh floor of Tower, all residents are committed to a safe living situation, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. Scary, isn’t it? Who wants their identity defined as “someone committed to having a safe community for everyone”?

This floor is not expressly political. It is my personal hope that any students who share our interest in a safer Skidmore community would feel welcome on the Gender and Orientation Safe Living floor, no matter what their politics are.

Sincerely,
Ren
Gender and Orientation Safe Living floor leader