"Would you prefer to live in a flat of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered students?"

This option (or something similar; I'm working from memory) was presented in the 2009/2010 accommodation application form as part of the University's new pilot scheme. This was a project I was looking into back in September. However, due to lack of interest - in fact, I'm told only 1 person out of Mason's entire population showed any interest - the project lapsed and obviously didn't go forward this year.

In my more recent post, following my meeting with Jane from E&D, I mentioned that we were hoping to jointly expand the scheme this year to other students in the private sector. Housing and Accommodation Services operates some private housing that is available to students who may want it. As I mentioned in said blog post, Jane was to look into that while I met with the SHAC.

After a little chat with Ed Sparkes, he was good enough to arrange a meeting between himself, me and Jesse from the SHAC on the issue of LGBTQ housing. During which we discussed the pros and conns of implementing such a scheme, namely:

• It's a balancing act; tackling homophobia bullying while discouraging segregation (and, by extension, heterophobia)
• We need to make it clear that an "all-gay house" is going to be like Big brother. I've seen and heard of houses where that's happened and gone disastrously wrong.
• Typical shared-house woes; having a common sexuality does not proclude any group of people from experiencing these.

Given that, for years, student house sites like AccommodationForStudents have allowed bulletin boards where people can advertise a house and state preferences based on cultural grounds, I was hoping that the SHAC would allow something similar (their site also has a notice board). Jesse and Ed were very accommodating but there isn't exactly a tick-box for sexuality - nor would we want there to be. As it stands, the plan is that I inform LGBTQ students - through whatever media means I have access to - that they can advertise a preference for other LGBTQ students if using the SHAC bulletin boards; provided that this facility is not misused.

However, and I cannot stress this enough - I only want this to be a last resort for those who have experienced severe problems with homophobia bullying in any student accommodation. Otherwise, as always, I encourage all LGBTQ students to try living in a diverse household; there's lessons everyone can learn in doing so!