Georgetown Expands Gender-Inclusive Housing Options for Students

Georgetown University continues to expand its gender-inclusive housing options, increasing its availability from only incoming first-year students to all students. 

Heally Hall, Georgetown University

As previously reported on Bondings 2.0, Georgetown University, a Jesuit school in Washington, DC,  made gender-inclusive housing available to all incoming first-year students in 2024. After Georgetown’s Board of Directors voted to implement a referendum–passed by Georgetown students–requesting the establishment of comprehensive gender-inclusive housing, the Office of Residential Living made changes to the Campus Housing Roommate Matching System (CHARMS) which enabled incoming first-year students to indicate their preference for gender-inclusive housing. The ‘Living Preference Questionnaire’ was also updated to include a question regarding “whether a student would be affirming and supportive of a roommate who identifies as LGBTQ+.”

These steps came as welcome progress from the previous system, which required that trans, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary students request housing accommodations on an individual case-by-case basis. For trans students like Jackie Early (CAS ’26), this process was “very daunting if you’re a closeted trans student.” 

Now, as The Georgetown Voice reports, Georgetown has made their gender-inclusive housing options even more accessible, opening up the option of gender-inclusive housing to all students. 

“This new process removes unnecessary barriers and treats gender inclusive housing as a standard option rather than an exception,” a university spokesperson wrote in a statement to the Voice.

Student organizations and university administrators alike have collaborated to bring about these changes. Jaden Cobb (CAS ’25), the 2023-24 Georgetown University Student Associations (GUSA) president, remarked that the motivation to make these changes was rooted in the desire to allow students to truly feel included and at home. “We would allow them to choose [roommates] based off of who the person is, rather than what the gender of that person is,” Cobb said.

Vice President of Student Affairs Eleanor Daugherty likewise noted the importance and necessity of truly inclusive housing options:

“I was very involved in the question of gender-inclusive housing far preceding the referendum.I think the referendum was an affirmation of the university’s disposition that was shared between students and leadership on ensuring that we have inclusive and welcoming housing.

“Our priority is always housing students on their identity and then making sure they are in a safe and affirming environment…GUPride [the campus LGBTQ+ student organization] really deserves a lot of recognition for bringing this to my attention and to others’ attention well preceding the referendum so that we would do better work in welcoming students to housing.”

The updated system is still in its early stages, however, and some students have expressed frustration with the process. 

For example, even if two students have agreed to be roommates, if both students have not opted-in to gender-neutral housing, this can complicate the process, as nonbinary first-year student Paloma Gomez (CAS ’28) recently discovered. Additionally, while selecting gender-inclusive housing impacts the formation of roommate groups (regardless of gender), it does not guarantee a specific room type or access to gender-neutral bathrooms. For students like Gomez, this means that the housing process is still fraught with uncertainty. 

“I really appreciate the fact that gender-inclusive housing as it exists, does exist. Like, you are able to room with someone regardless of your gender identity,” Gomez said. “That’s great, but it is not enough.”

For Cobb, who was instrumental in the initial changes to the housing system, the steps that have been taken so far are signs of significant progress and signal that the journey towards full inclusion is ongoing: 

“Us getting to where we are now with even the option of gender-inclusive housing for people is a huge step, which is amazing…but it’s just going to take future generations—especially as some of them graduate—to continue the work to keep it moving forward, especially with all these attacks on inclusivity in today’s current administration.”

Phoebe Carstens, New Ways Ministry, June 24, 2025