UCI Housing for Married Students Fills Key Need

UC Irvine protesters who insist on placing gays in married student housing may jeopardize their credibility and lose sympathy with their cause. The insistence on placing gays in housing designed for married people because they are declared lovers seems self-serving.

Should heterosexuals who wish to date or “go steady” also have this right?

The social construct of marriage exists primarily to provide for shared and defined responsibility in raising children. That the construct provides for social approval of cohabitation is a secondary result.

Married student housing at universities has evolved to meet the special needs of those who have made a legal commitment to live together and raise children. Provisions are made for children, including playgrounds, schooling and segregation away from single students who might object to their noise level. By providing for married student housing, universities acknowledge the coexistence of study with societal commitment to raise families.

Single parents with children are usually placed in married student housing. Where they choose to date or have live-ins, it has often been tacitly allowed by universities. Those gays who are rearing children and are legally responsible for their upbringing presumably should be granted the same rights.

Focus on the actual needs and desires of gay students in housing would seem more appropriate than civil disobedience.

Do some gays wish to be segregated from heterosexuals? Do they find it frustrating or an affront to be assigned to live with a member of the same sex who is not a lover?

Administrators need to be sensitive to the needs of gays, and the assignment of an ombudsman is the first step in this direction. Since the door is open to meeting actual needs at UC Irvine, one would hope that gays and their advocates would not block the door for others to pass through.

NEAL L. BURSTEIN

Irvine