Gender-neutral housing coming to GW

GW announced late Thursday afternoon that gender-neutral housing will be offered for the 2011-2012 academic year. The Equal Housing Opportunity Act (EHOA), a proposal presented by current senior Michael Komo to the GW Student Association Senate last January, was the catalyst for the decision. After the SA voted to approve the motion last year, it was sent on to the GW administration for consideration. Their decision yesterday came after months of debate by students and administration staff alike.

The new program will allow all students to live with one another, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Begininning this fall, all GW students, including freshmen, will be able to opt-in. Students will not be randomly assigned in to the program to live with students of different genders; all students who wish to live in opposite-sex housing must specifically request to live with students they know.

Westboro Baptist Church Comes to GW

Students swarmed on Washington Circle to counter-protest the controversial, gay-bashing Westboro Baptist Church’s picketing of GW early this morning.

The GW Patriot sponsored the event in response to claims made on the church’s website that “parents and teachers, including college professors, are responsible for raising a generation of God-hating heathens.”

The counter-protest received sizable support from the GW student community, with over 1,800 “attending” guests for the Patriot’s Facebook event. Though the initial Hatchet report estimated the actual crowd size at 200 attendees, Patriot writer and creator of the Facebook event, Dan Keylin, claimed there were as many as 350 protesters.

Four members of the Westboro congregation casually paced the outer rim of the George Washington University Hospital side of Washington Circle with their now famous “God Hates Fags” signs, while passionate students took to the Patriot’s designated protesting space, on the Northern half of the of the circle, with signs attacking the church members’ anti-gay sentiments. One protestor wandered the crowd dressed in a Jesus getup and held a “No I Don’t” sign to counter the Westboro slogan.

Despite the occasional cry of “You suck!” or “Go back to Kansas!” the crowd was relatively tame.

Westboro’s picketers smiled while flashing their signs to passing cars and zealous protesters. They even sang a version of pop star Lady Gaga’s single, “Telephone,” replacing the outspoken gay rights advocate’s words with their own lyrics.

The event ran without incident, ending with a raucous send off of "Na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye" as the church members left Washington Circle for their Veteran's Day protest at Arlington National Cemetery.

-Joseph Rabinowitz

Six Arrested After DADT Protest at White House

Six military veterans were arrested Tuesday after handcuffing themselves to the northern fence of the White House in protest of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the policy that keeps gay people from serving in the military.

Lt. Dan Choi, Capt. Jim Pietrangelo II, Petty Officer Autumn Sandeen, Petty Officer Larry Whitt, Cadet Mara Boyd, and Cpl. Evelyn Thomas chained themselves to the White House fence and stood in silence as volunteers from GetEqual, the advocacy organization that organized the protest, and other LGBT acvitists chanted and cheered them on in the streets.

Protestors screamed "Thank you for your service, you deserve better," "Hey hey, ho ho, Don't Ask, Don't Tell has got to go," and "Shame, shame, shame" as police officers unchained and arrested the veterans.  The protestors - and all civilians in the area - were moved across the street to Lafayette Park, which was soon also cleared because of the disturbance.

The six veterans spent the night at D.C. County Jail.  They now await an arraignment hearing at D.C. Central Cellblock on Wednesday afternoon.

Choi and Pietrangelo were previously arrested last month for a similar act of civil disobedience.

Photo captured from CNN footage.

BREAKING: SA Senate Passes LGBT Bills

SA Senator and potential Presidential Candidate Michael Komo received two pieces of good news Tuesday night, as the Senate voted to pass the two LGBT bills he had been championing.

The Senate first passed the 2010 Expanding Academic Opportunities Act, which endorses the creation of an LGBT Studies Minor within CCAS, by a roll-call vote of 23-7.

The Senate later passed the 2010 Equal Housing Opportunity Act, which endorses gender-neutral housing, allowing students to apply for housing with students of the opposite gender if they request one another, by a roll-call vote of 19-11.  The bill had been tabled at last week's meeting.

"I am absolutely elated!  We have been working for months on these initiatives," said Komo after final passage of both bills.  "Our hard was rewarded tonight with the passage of both pieces of legislation. I am beyond happy that we have addressed the concerns of students and have offered positive solutions. The point of the Student Association is to help students in need. We have successfully done that this evening. I am very proud. I look forward to addressing more concerns of the student body at future Senate meetings."

Komo had added an amendment to EHOA during a recess to change the endorsement to a less "widespread" version of gender-neutral housing consisting of a one-year pilot program, with the university deciding at the end of the year whether to keep the program.

Senator Erik Ashida told WRGW News before the meeting that he will be retiring from the SA at the end of the year.  During the thirty-minute debate session before the vote, Ashida said that "the concept [of gender-neutral housing] itself is fundamentally sound," calling it "a sound policy we should endorse."

But Senator Giovanni Tomassi, who voiced opposition to both bills, said EHOA was "too broad" and "has too many flaws."

One of the lighter moments of the debate came when Senator Logan Dobson, talking about the potential costs of instituting campus-wide gender-neutral housing, said that "as a member of housing staff I don't charge by the roommate conflict," eliciting applause from some of his fellow Senators.

Click here to read the liveblog of the meeting.