LGBT students are campaigning for separate halls

Students have called for universities to provide exclusive accommodation on campus for LGBT students, amid fears of potential victimisation from straight flatmates.

The Daily Mail reported this weekend that at York, Ashley Reed, a transgender student and a former LGBT officer, is in the process of suggesting policy plans to provide separate LGBT accommodation at her university.

She wrote in a Facebook status about how she felt “so persecuted at York just because I’m trans and disabled.”

Birmingham is currently the only uni to offer an LGBT housing option. Additionally, the Sunday Times reported that there had been similar campaigns launched at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), pushing for separate LGBT housing alongside other accommodation blocks.

Some justifications for the campaigner’s aims have mirrored policy held by many colleges in the USA, where the NUS’s LGBT campaign guidance have pointed out that LGBT-only student housing has been the norm for some time now.

However, detractors have suggested that this could lead to even less integration for LGBT students within campus life, and that the focus should be on building an atmosphere of tolerance and respect for difference on campuses.

A spokesperson for the LGBT rights charity Stonewall told The Tab that “We’re working towards a world where everyone can be accepted without exception, wherever they live, work, shop and pray.

“These initiatives may address the problems that LGBT people face in the short-term. However, ensuring that everyone is free to be themselves in whatever context is not just about creating specific safe-spaces.

“It’s about creating a culture that is inclusive and accepting.”