DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Western Community College is offering a pilot housing program that aims to help transgender students feel more comfortable.
The Des Moines Register reports students were given the option this year of joining the program, which assigns them to a roommate based on their gender identity or expression rather than their legal sex.
This housing option appealed to Mikey Fletcher. The 23-year-old student at the college lives in the community with a male roommate.
Fletcher says he wishes “other schools would recognize that they would get a larger student base” by becoming more gender-inclusive.
The U.S. Department of Education issued a guidance last year that clarifies that transgender students are protected from discrimination under federal civil rights legislation Title IX.
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