Utah House passes ban on male students in women’s dorms

[Michie]

Public colleges would be required to assign transgender students to dorms based on their biological sex

Responding to concerns about a transgender Resident Assistant in a Utah State University dorm, state lawmakers advanced a bill Tuesday to require that students live in university housing that matches their sex.

The bill, HB 269, passed the Utah House in a 59-13 vote, and now heads to the Senate for consideration.

Sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Gricius, R-Eagle Mountain, the bill would require all public higher education institutions to assign students a dorm room based on their sex “regardless of gender identity.”

Continued below.

Utah House passes ban on male students in women’s dorms | The College Fix

Public colleges would be required to assign transgender students to dorms based on their biological sex.

www.thecollegefix.com

 

[PloverWing]

This bill seems to be a) addressing a problem that I'm not sure exists, and b) addressing a problem at the level of state law that would be better handled within the university.

Point (a) is: Many colleges and universities don't have single-sex dorms any more, or only a couple of their dorms are designated as single-sex. From the article:

"For clarity, USU does not have all-female or all-male residence halls," DeRito told The Fix. "… RAs are students who act as peer advisors, and both women and men serve as RAs and provide peer advising to other students assigned to them, including either men or women."

If we're talking about dorm rooms, rather than dorms, then I think it's reasonable to take into account a preference that "I want to share a room with another cisgender woman". But that brings me to (b): I think the issue is best handled at the university level. Many colleges and universities send out questionnaires to incoming first-year students asking about a variety of preferences and personality traits, and they then use those responses to assign people roommates with whom they're likely to get along. This could also include the possibility of a student saying "I'm transgender, and I prefer to share a room with another person who's transgender or nonbinary", all totally voluntary on everyone's part (but ruled out by the proposed law, I think). Or, again, a student could say they prefer a cisgender roommate of the same sex, and the university could honor that preference.