Community College Offers Transgender Student Housing Program

Iowa Western Community College is offering a pilot housing program that aims to help transgender students feel more comfortable.

The Des Moines Register (http://icp-c.com/1GeNp4C ) reports that students were given the option this year of joining the program, which assigns them to a roommate based on their gender identity or expression rather than their legal sex. According to school officials, more than 80 students expressed interest in living in the community. The school accepted 35 students who were most in need of such a living arrangement.

"We don't want it to grow so big that it attracts students who aren't actively interested in living in a gender-inclusive environment," Luiken said.s

School officials said, for the present, they are planning to keep the program at its current size.

"I wish other schools would recognize that they would get a larger student base out of (becoming more gender-inclusive)," said Mikey Fletcher, a 23-year-old student that lives in the community with a male roommate. "After learning about this option, I basically did shun other schools (that) didn't offer something similar. ... I wouldn't have really known what to do."