Gender-Neutral Campuses Endanger Students, Pro-Family Activist Warns

by Jim Brown
July 23, 2004

(AgapePress) - A pro-family advocate is opposing efforts the latest efforts of homosexual, bisexual, and transgender activists at the University of Pennsylvania.

The recent inclusion of a so-called "gender identity" clause in the university's non-discrimination policy has prompted members of the campus homosexual, bisexual and transgender community to issue a list of demands. They want the school to offer special housing for transgender students, to provide more gender neutral bathrooms, and to eliminate boxes on university questionnaires and forms that ask students to identify their sex.

Diane Gramley with the American Family Association of Pennsylvania believes these demands are just another attempt to normalize the homosexual lifestyle. But she believes to accommodate them would do a disservice to the entire student community.

"The University of Pennsylvania should do what's best for the students," Gramley says, "and that would not be to cave in to homosexual activists that are trying to eliminate distinctions between male and female, because that is putting their students in danger."

However, the pro-family spokeswoman says other universities in Pennsylvania are already making "gender-blind" dormitories available to transgender students, a trend that she considers hazardous. She warns that gender-neutral housing could lead to more incidents of rape on college campuses.

Gramley notes, "The danger of sexual assault, whether you're creating a gender-neutral environment or allowing transgenders to have a room on the floor of a dormitory, is creating dangerous situations for all of the students involved."

The pro-family advocate also points out that public institutions are not legally compelled to make such accommodations. Since the terms "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" are not included in the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, she says state colleges and universities are not required to include them in their non-discrimination policies.