*** The first part of this story ran in Thursday’s issue ***

Aiden Ethington has never lived on campus.

When she transferred to Eastern the idea scared her and she worried what it would be like.

Ethington, a senior political science major and president of EIU Pride, is genderqueer, a transgender identity where someone feels they are either a mix of both male and female or gender neutral.

Pride is a registered student organization for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people, other alternative lifestyle individuals and their allies.

Ethington said she knows of a lot of students who have problems with taking showers.

“The gay and lesbian kids have a hard time with it because if you go to the bathrooms or the shower, people harass you,” Ethington said.

Dan Koteski, a senior history and journalism major and action director of Pride, said he has known quite a few Pride members who have been harassed in housing but especially freshmen who are generally relegated to Carman Hall.

“All of (Carmen residents) are just out of high school,” Koteski said. “They’re sheltered. They don’t really know any better. They’re not really exposed to other – to sexual minorities and that kind of thing.”

Ethington said people have been harassed just coming in and out of their room.

“There’s people that have had like bulletin boards on their door defaced like ‘fag’ or ‘dyke’ written on it,” Ethington said.

Ethington believes one way Eastern could improve is by adding a co-ed bathroom somewhere.

“Then people who are gender variant or even any LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) people would feel comfortable in that bathroom because people aren’t going to look at you like you don’t belong in here,” Ethington said.

Mark Hudson, director of housing and dining services, also said one of the challenges Eastern has is a lot of shared bathroom facilities.

Hudson said housing services currently has a project in works starting this summer to allow for increased privacy in bathrooms.

The project will start with the bathrooms in Douglas.

Hudson said within the common space of the renovated bathrooms, there will be private bathrooms added.

“You can go into your own bathroom that has a shower and a toilet and a sink,” Hudson said. “And then you’d lock the door and then it’s your space to get ready in the morning.”

He said Douglas was a specific area where the bathrooms did not receive good evaluations, so renovations will start there.

Bathrooms are not the only area of campus, however, that some Pride members feel need attention.

Koteski said bringing “project safe zone” back to campus would help LGBT students.

Koteski said “project safe zone” brought expert educators to campus to speak to faculty about LGBT discrimination.

He said the lecture usually concludes with an LGBT safe sticker handed out for faculty to put on their door.

“There’s really – there’s nowhere to go,” Ethington said. “We don’t have an LGBT resource center. I mean there’s really no resource for a student who feels like no one is helping them.”

Koteski also said the LGBT students should not shy away from harassment incidents.

“I think another thing to understand is that the LGBT community also needs to stand up for themselves in the event that issues occur,” Koteski said.

Hudson said there is zero tolerance for harassment.

“A student has a right to live in our environments and do so in a way that they enjoy that experience,” Hudson said. “And if other students take away from that enjoyment then they’re going to be held accountable for that.”

Hudson said housing supports the right to have a different opinion but not the right to make people feel uncomfortable.

“You, for example, can, not necessarily be supportive of gay rights, or whatever, but that doesn’t mean that if someone is gay you can act out against them and make them feel uncomfortable,” Hudson said.

Fact Box:

Colleges/Universities in Illinois with an LGBT resource center:

Columbia College Chicago

DePaul University

Northern Illinois University

Northwestern University

University of Illinois Chicago

University of Illinois, Springfield

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign