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7/18/2003 04:12:00 AM | Timothy Dartmouth Civil Liberties Union Blog Give a warm welcome to the Dartmouth Civil Liberties Union blog. I wonder how many of the members are committed to the ACLU's opposition to regulating soft money and other types of campaign finance reform. I wonder if all of them that sexual harassment can never be unintentional? (for that matter, can a man ever think he's not raping a women, even though she thinks she hasn't consented?) And if they are concerned about speech regulated by private universities, do they care if employers (like Walmart) suppress the speech of their employees and make them sign loyalty pledges? But I'd thought I'd comment on a an article posted by a DCLU blogger on whether a same-sex form room policy is unfair to homosexuals (the blogger, Jed Sorokin-Altmann, seems agnostic on the issue). I really have a hard time buying the argument that single-sex dorm rooms discriminates against homosexuals. If anything, homosexuals benefit from being able to live together as couples where as heterosexuals cannot. As for the message it sends... well, I understand the logic, but most people don't even think about it in that way. Maybe you could say that is part of the problem, I don't know, but it isn't what is causing the stigmatization of homosexuals, and there are many other things that make heterosexuality seem like the norm here. I'm skeptical this is This is the way to liberation. On the other hand, I can understand the idea that homosexuals might not feel comfortable with living people of the same sex; that made some sense to me in a way I did not understand at first. But if you randomly assign men to live with women, then A LOT of women are going to feel uncomfortable. You could still assign first years to only have same-sex roommates, and then allow them to choose any sex to live with. But then doesn't that still put the university's stamp of approval on single-sex rooms being the norm? And it still leaves in place the stigma problem it was meant to solve... Now, I don't necessarily think it is a horrible idea to allow opposite sex dorm rooms. But the solution a) mainly benefits hetereosexual couples who want to live together, b) doesn't end the 'stigmazation' unless it randomly assigns rooms at the beginning, making even more women uncomfortable, and c) benefits the small (?) amount of homosexuals who want to live with the opposite sex (and I suppose those that want to live with them). The last might stand on its own, but is it outweighed by other factors or is it discrimination no matter what? By the way, this seems similiar to allowing transgendered people to use the bathroom opposite of their biological sex. I understand that someone who identifies their gender as female, but who is biologically male, might feel uncomfortable using a men's bathroom. (sorry if I'm not using the appropriate terminology) It does not fit with their identity, to say the least. But what about women who feel uncomfortable knowing that someone with a penis could be in the women's room? I say this having lived in two co-ed houses at Dartmouth where sharing a co-ed bathroom presented no major problems that I am aware of. I'm open to hearing arguments and being educated, as I'm seen some plausibility where I didn't used to, but right now I'm pretty skeptical... perma link |
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