https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2018/06/30/universities-warned-creeping-segregation-sheffield-launches/

[Floorplan]

Hope all bedrooms are en suite.

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2018/06/30/universities-warned-creeping-segregation-sheffield-launches/

This seems to be where identity politics is taking us.

Today it's 'safe spaces'. Tomorrow it'll be a way of facilitating discrimination and prejudice.

Will it be a safe space for lesbian students? I think it's a dangerous move.

I understand having some accommodation reserved for certain groups but if the problem is bullying on campus then the bullying needs to be addressed.

I know Leeds uni has some catered halls that are Kosher, I'm not sure you HAVE to be Jewish to be in those halls but you won't be served bacon for breakfast.

Sheffield Uni are reported as saying "By no means is this accommodation compulsory, nor do we wish to encourage segregation, but we feel it is extremely important that our students have the choice of living in LGBT+ only accommodation if they so desire.”

And if women want the choice of women only dorms do they have this choice or do they have to allow transwomen in? Or are some people's choices more valid than others.

What have they been smoking :(

There's no way I'd sign up for those as a lesbian. Otherwise, I think it's a nice third space.

How will they be sure it is LGBT+ only and keep predatory heterosexual males out and away from young lesbians and trans men?

I doubt anything's actually changed in the way people are treated. It mentions microagressions, comments and 'will face bullying'. However, I like a woman only space so if there is a demand for this from LGBT students, why not give it a try.

They seem a bit confused about who will be allowed to live in this accommodation. It says it is for gay and transgender students only, but also says:

He said Sheffield’s plan will go even further by enacting an explicit ban on heterosexual students, and will further fuel student segregation.

If no heterosexual students are allowed, how do you classify transgender students to make sure they are eligible? For example, would a transman who has had no medical treatment, and is attracted to women be allowed? This person is biologically female, so would their relationships with women be viewed as lesbian relationships or heterosexual?

What about a transwoman who has had no medical treatment, and is attracted to women? Would this person be welcomed as a lesbian, or would their relationships with women be seen as heterosexual?

You lot are obsessed with policing everything. Anyone who's homophobic isn't going to sign up to live in these flats so I can't see why it would need to be "proven" that you are LGBT. I would have loved this in my first year as I had to share a flat with homophobic people. For my third year, I'm living in a women's only flat in a private student halls. There may well be transwomen there, and I dont care. Sometimes I wonder whether the tone of these discussions would change if there were more millenials on Mumsnet.

I have no problem with this as long as women are allowed a female space. Which I think many lesbians would want instead of an essentially "queer" space.

Anyone who's homophobic isn't going to sign up to live in these flats so I can't see why it would need to be "proven" that you are LGBT.
A person can be homophobic and trans. For example, if they are of the male sex and do not understand why a lesbian might not want to sleep with them.

Anyone who's homophobic isn't going to sign up to live in these flats so I can't see why it would need to be "proven" that you are LGBT.

Meant to bold this bit.

That's true @Iceweasel, but I think the chances of that situation affecting a gay, lesbian or bisexual student is probably less likely than the chances of them being affected by being housed with homophobic straight people. So on balance it probably guarantees greater safety from homophobia for most people.

I find it odd. Gay men and lesbians don't really have all that much in common with each other. Neither have anything in common with transgender people.

I see that they dropped a similar proposal at Birmingham University for lack of interest.

Good grief.
Will there be sexuality police for anyone who seems a bit too straight? How will this work for the bisexuals - and will the gender fluids have to check in and check out again with each shift?

The only feature which is categorically obvious, immutable, binary and perfectly possible to distinguish is the one the world is desperately trying to pretend doesn't exist.

Le sigh.

Anyone who's homophobic isn't going to sign up to live in these flats so I can't see why it would need to be "proven" that you are LGBT.

Im obviously missing the point

I thought the uni was banning heterosexual people

How are they supposed to know that you aren't heterosexual until you prove it

And yeah, how does the bi bit work

Taking this in good faith, I find it very worrying that the University is flooded with homophobic students and is either unwilling or incapable of keeping affected students safe. I was also under the impression that Millenials are the most open minded and non bigoted generation ever. I'm surprised things have gotten so bad for lesbian and gay students in the ten years since I graduated from uni.

I was ignoring this thread as I didn't have the mental energy to deal with some PP but millenials are definitely not all open minded and non bigoted. I'd say the New Left radicals generation in the 60s/70s was in many ways more liberal and less bigoted than many millenials. Millenials are so deeply divided on left/right political lines that it's genuinely frightening. The rise in forms of tolerance and pride within marginalised communities seems to have fuelled a massive and loud backlash as well.

Sometimes I wonder whether the tone of these discussions would change if there were more millenials on Mumsnet.

What do you think we are missing that millennials would bring to the discussion, argumentativefeminist?

I think that left-leaning millenials tend to have a much less rigid understanding of sex and gender than many of the feminists/women I've seen on here and in general seem to be less concerned about the problems/potential issues surrounding the many trans and wider LGBT issues that are discussed here. That's not to say that either group is less or more "right" than the other, just that I think there's different thinking styles and it might change the tone of the discussion (again not necessarily for better or worse) if more millenial feminists/leftists/women were represented.

argumentativefeminist I was mostly making fun of your own Millenial comment (obviously unsuccessfully). But Pew Research from 2010 stats, "That 2009 survey also found that the public — young and old alike — thinks the younger generation is more racially tolerant than their elders. More than two decades of Pew Research surveys confirm that assessment."

What leads you to believe there aren't Millenials on MN? We're the ones who are primarily in our fertile years, I'm sure this place is lousy with us.

insufficiently I totally get that now you've said it! Sorry for going off at you like that. I think racism has been firmly marked as deeply unacceptable by most people now, at least in its overt forms, whereas homophobia and especially transphobia are more of a supposed grey area for some people. I dont think it has the same social stigma to be a transphobe or even a homophobe as it does to be a racist. But it would be a very interesting area to study, the intergenerational differences, and I hope to be as to do that one day.