Notre Dame has single sex dorms and according to student critics, this is a problem for LGBT students on campus.
The College Fix reports:
Student leaders fight ‘heteronormativity’ at Notre DameThe University of Notre Dame to this day exclusively maintains single-sex dorms, with all-male and all-female residence halls at the 177-year-old Catholic institution.Now its student body president has asserted the university’s dorms wrongfully normalize heterosexuality over homosexuality.Student Body President Elizabeth Boyle told The College Fix in an interview her team is taking steps to address “heteronormativity” in the Catholic university’s dorms.Heteronormative means “denoting or relating to a world view that promotes heterosexuality as the normal or preferred sexual orientation,” according to Oxford Dictionary.Members of Boyle’s student government plan to work to end a longstanding campus policy that forbids students from spending the night in the dorms of the opposite sex, according to an internal email obtained by The College Fix. According to earlier writings by the architect of the plan in student government, this would be for the sake of minimizing heteronormativity.Boyle said she “personally” supports allowing transgender students to live in the dorm that corresponds to their gender identity, and explained heteronormativity affects transgender students living in Notre Dame dorms.With people of the opposite sex spending the night and transgender students of the opposite biological sex joining a dorm, Notre Dame dorms would move away from their single-sex origins.Boyle told The College Fix heteronormativity is particularly pronounced at Notre Dame in the setting of an all-male dorm.“For example, guys in a male dorm could tease a guy about asking a girl out without realizing that he’s gay,” she said.Boyle said her team has taken steps to address heteronormativity through the distribution of “ally” and “safe space” pins, stickers, and signs to rectors and resident assistants. These materials can be found across campus in seemingly every dorm. Boyle stressed these stickers promote the importance of “inclusivity” and “making everyone feel welcome.”
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