GW Students Push For Gender-Neutral Housing

By Jessica Gould

Some colleges across the country are beginning to let men and women live together in dorm rooms. Now a group of students at George Washington University says it's time to join the movement.

For Kaden Trifilio, the transition from high school to college was especially hard. That's because he was also making another transition--from life as a female to life as a male.

"Toward the end of high school, I was passing as male quite a bit of the time, and I realized I felt a lot more comfortable having those interactions and knowing that I was being perceived as male than I did previously being perceived as female," says Trifilio.

But Trifilio was worried about what his GW roommates would think. "I was sort of panicking over the idea of having to live with girls who might not understand, or might not be comfortable with my presentation," says Trifilio.

Now Trifilio is joining other undergrads to push for gender-neutral housing at GW.

"Gender neutral housing is a program that offers male, female and transgendered students the opportunity to live in the same housing," says student senator Michael Komo.

Right now GW only allows students of the same sex to share a dorm room. But Komo says students of the opposite sex should be allowed to live together, too. Komo plans to introduce a bill calling for gender-neutral housing at the school in January.