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.