Campus should continue to practice gender neutrality awareness, acceptance
The University of South Dakota is now accepting gender neutral housing contracts. This means students are able to identify themselves with whatever gender they feel connected to. This is a huge step toward gender equality in South Dakota.
The non-binary issue of excluding pronouns has become relevant on campus, as it is important to students who identify a gender of their choosing.
In our society, sexuality has become a gray area to those who do not necessarily identify with the gender they were born with. However, this does not mean we can discriminate, and this step at USD is helping to defy a common opinion and changing it to better our society.
One concern with the new housing application might be potential controversy from a possible roommate. Although the public opinion is slowly changing, not everyone agrees with it. Therefore, safety and roommate conflict can be an issue.
However, Todd Tucker, director of university housing, has already covered this base. When in the first step of signing up for a room, both roommates must sign a contract stating they are accepting of any roommate. They are also allowed to choose their roommate or have one assigned to them.
The next step is the awareness of proper pronouns usage. A major issue is using the wrong pronoun with someone who identifies with a different gender, and it is offensive to them. SPECTRUM, a student organization on campus, is working with administration to change this. Their goal is to raise awareness and education among the administration and student body.
This new process in housing is just another step further in awareness and recognition in gender neutrality, and it’s in the right direction. By accepting that “neutral” is an option to select when applying for housing we are equalizing our student body, taking away discrimination in the future.
SPECTRUM is also pushing for non-binary pronouns like “they,” “them” and “zed,” and these help the people who are working to be who they are.
Jordan Catlett, the president of SPECTRUM, and other students attended the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference (MBLGTACC) at Illinois State University earlier this month, and she believes the biggest takeaway was the acceptance and awareness of correct pronouns.
By taking away strict gender identity we as a student body will learn to accept students who choose their own identity and be more conscious of our choice of words.
Our public opinion of gender identity is slowly improving and this change on campus is a huge help. The next step is creating more gender neutral bathrooms. This step should only increase the desire the university has to accept all students and their identity.
