The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 2 - 65

Narrative of LGBTQ Students' Experiences in Campus Housing

Adler (whose pronouns are they, them, and
theirs) shared that during their sophomore
year, they participated in a Clark project about
gender and sexuality. They stated, "It was kind
of like a little queer house," adding:
We actually got the entire house safe zone
trained and then put the safe zone sticker
on our front door so people knew that and
people, a lot of the freshmen, the queer
freshmen from that year started coming to our
house as a place to hang out because they
knew that we were making that effort ... and
we had our giant rainbow flag in our window
facing the Willow van stop, it was great.
Sadie shared that she currently lives in a
Clark townhouse that focused on religious diversity, but that her experience is not positive.
Sadie stated:
I feel unsafe. Because I've had just multiple
encounters there where people were using
derogatory language and excluding me from
activities on the basis of my identity. A couple
of the people in my house, they just, like, say
"faggot" like it doesn't mean anything and
they know that it irritated me. So they do it
over and over again and they make sure they
say it loud enough for me to hear. And it's just
a very unsafe space to the point where I don't
really even hang out in the common room if
any of the people who are problems are in
there.
Someone asked Sadie if she told anyone in
residence life about what was going on. Sadie
responded "No," sharing:
It's often more of a hassle [to report] than
it is going to get me anywhere. So I don't
wanna take time out of my day to sit down
and complain about something that I know
most people who like aren't in the community
is gonna think is a minor issue. You know, if
you say something, you're complaining, and

whining, and ratting on someone else. You're
being a tattletale. And so you just get a lot of
pushback for that, and I just didn't wanna
deal with that... I don't know if he would've
faced any consequences or if anyone would've
talked to him about it if I did report it, but
knowing that there was an available option I
think helped.
Across the room, Nina overhearing the
conversation from the kitchen, jumped in with
her own uncomfortable housing experience,
sharing:
I'm usually wearing my Legalize Gay shirt
when I am in my dorm... I have seen some of
the discomfort on some of the girls' faces. Like
if I am wearing it in the kitchen, I've seen girls
be like, "Oh."
Nina continued her story saying, "I know the
girl next to me gives me funny looks because
she is a Willow Catholic. She sees the legalize
gay shirt, but there has never been any blatant
problem. Sort of that subtle stuff." Chase
added:
I think if there is one place on campus that I
think most LGBT students feel comfortable it's in their room, which is sad but very true.
It's that, if there's one place I can go to get
away from most things, it's my room. And that
might be because I live in a single, but I think
even when I lived in a double I still felt like I
could go to my room to get away from it all.
Other students continued to share their
stories of subtle and blatant incidents they encountered living in the residence halls. Taylor
then shifted the conversation to his experience
as a transman:
Last year I lived on an all girls' floor even
though I was, you know, in transition. Luckily
I had a non-binary roommate, so that was
fine. But I did live on the girls' floor. [The
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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 2