LGBTQ Resources

 

I want to go to a Yale where LGBTQ students have access to safe and inclusive spaces, resources that meet their needs, and a culture of respect for their identities. Yale prides itself on being a welcoming and inclusive space for people of all orientations and gender identities, but the recent YCC LGBTQ Task Force report makes clear that many LGBTQ students face unseen challenges with housing, healthcare, and matters as simple as getting the correct name listed on their ID card, and feel frustrated with the lack of a dedicated community space for solidarity and celebration. If we want to go to a Yale where there is true equity among all students, we need to go to a Yale that provides adequate resources to the LGBTQ community.

Yale Should:

  • Create, at long last, an LGBTQ Student Center. While there is currently a Yale Office of LGBTQ Resources, it is quite small and is located in close proximity to offices that enforce Yale policy pertaining to drugs and alcohol. Yale’s LGBTQ community, like other communities on campus, must be provided a space that is sufficiently spacious and inviting. Columbia is the only other Ivy League school that does not have an official student center for LGBTQ students.

  • Provide emergency funding to students who, after coming out to their parents or guardians, are cut off from their family’s finances.

  • Allow students to designate their gender identity on SIS by the click of a button, to avoid awkward situations in which transitioned or transitioning students are referred to by the wrong gender pronoun by professors.

  • Allow transitioned or transitioning students to change their email addresses and Yale Facebook profile to reflect name changes.

  • Extend gender-neutral housing to freshmen. Regardless of age, students should not be forced to live with students of a particular gender.

  • Permit gender-neutral rooms within gender-neutral suites.

  • Publish a complete list of gender-neutral bathrooms on campus online, and expand the number of gender-neutral bathrooms throughout campus, in residential colleges, classroom spaces, and performing arts spaces.

  • Require LGBTQ competency and sensitivity training for all faculty and staff.

  • Expand coverage expenses related to transitioning under Yale Health plans, especially Yale Basic.

  • Expand the LGBTQ Peer Liaison program to serve students of all class years, not just freshmen. Many students come out after their freshman year, and they too should be able to be served by a PL.

What YCC Can Do:

 

  • Advocate for administrators to adopt the recommendations made by YCC’s LGBTQ Task Force, especially the creation of a dedicated LGBTQ student center.

  • Assign a YCC representative to be the liaison to the LGBTQ Co-Op.

  • Offer additional event funding to support events for LGBTQ students.

  • Include information about LGBTQ resources, gender-neutral housing, and gender-neutral bathrooms in the resource guide that class councils distribute to incoming freshmen.