Georgetown LGBTQ+ Students Lobby for Their Own Space

Georgetown University students are searching for queer community and are advocating for a campus LGBTQ+ living space. 

In order to provide more support for LGBTQ+ students, members of GU Pride, the school’s LGBTQ+  club, are asking the university to reinstate the LGBTQ+ Living Learning Community (LLC). LLC’s are intentional living communities aimed at bringing individuals with shared identities or interests together. 

Georgetown’s former LGBTQ+ LLC, called Crossroads, closed four years ago. Back in 2016, students fought to create a queer LLC, with the initial proposal being denied. After it was repurposed, the university accepted the proposal and Crossroads was created for the 2018-2019 school year. However, the community shut down with the 2020 pandemic and never returned to campus. 

Now, GU Pride is working to reopen Crossroads. So far, the proposal has support from the Georgetown University Student Association  Executive Team. A survey was recently sent out to Georgetown students to gain information on student interest. 

For students like Paloma Gomez, a nonbinary Georgetown student, it has been difficult to find people who relate to their identity:

“I have found it very difficult to find a lot of other LGBTQ individuals. In terms of actually connecting with them and actually being able to make those friendships and relationships, it’s very difficult. It very much feels like this is a very straight campus, when in reality it’s probably not completely the case.”

Jackie Early, GU Pride’s director of outreach, believes that there is a need for a safe space on campus, which would also help to promote dialogue between different communities. She states: 

“Generally, it seems that people want a more permanent and safe place on campus. It’s odd to backslide and have this protected space for a community to be taken away.

“You’re constantly interacting with communities you would nowhere else see together. That is, I think, an example of what the queer LLC will bring—a space to collaborate with different groups.”

The push for a LGBTQ+ LLC comes after the university introduced a gender-inclusive housing pilot for the Class of 2028. On the housing application, first year students  could request gender-inclusive housing, along with noting whether they would welcome a LGBTQ+ roommate. 

While gender-inclusive housing and the LLC are different issues, there is a clear desire for more inclusive spaces on campus. Georgetown has done a lot for LGBTQ+ students.  Let’s hope it carries on that tradition with this new initiative.

—Sarah Cassidy, New Ways Ministry, March 29, 2025