How a U student reacted when housed with a gay-friendly community

A University of Minnesota freshman — who’d been raised Catholic in the suburbs — recently contacted the Pioneer Press‘ Watchdog writer to say she was upset at having been randomly assigned to a room in which she’d share a communal bathroom with lesbians.

“I’ve never been around it. All of a sudden, they just put you in the middle of that.”

The Watchdog takes a look at the gay-friendly Lavender House and the concept of “living learning communities” — or LLCs — at the U.

You can read the full article here.

About the blogger

Alex Friedrich

afriedrich@mpr.org

Alex Friedrich reports on higher education issues for MPR News. Among the stories he has covered: the fall of the Berlin Wall, aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, 2003 Moscow suicide bombing and 2004 presidential elections in the Republic of Georgia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s in European political economy from the London School of Economics.

kotz

Poor little bigot.
Fred Garvin

I guess name-calling is acceptable as long as we claim the moral high ground, right?
Fred Garvin

I see that the U has a “Huntley House for African-American Men”–I doubt that it’s open to women.
Sexist pigs.
Fred Garvin

“One is focused on out-of-state students — maybe somebody from New York City who has never heard of hotdish — as “an introduction to traditions and events to become familiar with Minnesota culture.”
Yeah right.
I doubt that UM includes ANY aspect of the MN gun culture and traditions in their indoctrination efforts.
You see, that’s the problem at UM and Big Ed everywhere: some traditions and cultures are elevated or worthy of exploration or protection, others are condemned. “Diversity” is a code word for “we’ll tell you what’s right & wrong”.