Above photo: Salley Hall on the FSU campus. Logan Chatfield/FSView and Florida Flambeau.
The following statement is by Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society.
At the start of the Spring 2025 semester, FSU Admin secretly axed LGBTQ+ Housing – which provides much needed accommodations to transgender and queer students living on campus without communicating their decision to any students, or even the Inter-Residence Hall Council (IHRC). This comes amid escalating attacks on the rights and autonomy of queer and trans people by the reactionary Trump administration and the ruling Florida Republican Party.
As soon as the student body found out, Tallahassee SDS and other student organizations, including the IHRC and Pride Student Union, condemned FSU Admin for putting queer students in danger by removing this program which was meant to protect them from being forced into potentially unsafe gender-segregated living arrangements that don’t align with their gender. Or being assigned bigoted roommates and being forced to live in an unsafe environment.
Queer people at FSU have the right to safe housing in which they can feel comfortable living openly as themselves, expressing their gender identity and sexuality without fear. Admin may have backed down today, but the callous disregard for queer students which led them to try to destroy LGBTQ+ Housing has not gone away.
This whole episode has made it very clear that FSU cares more about placating Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump than they do about their own students. FSU Admin didn’t restore LGBTQ+ Housing out of the goodness of their hearts– they did it because the student body stood up and fought back!
The LGBTQ+ housing program was established only in Fall of 2021 after a lengthy grassroots campaign led by activists from Gender Odyssey, SDS, and the Pride Student Union – which was itself established through militant student activism in the 60s and 70s.
All of our rights have been won through mass struggle, and queer students’ right to safe housing is no different! This historic victory – one of the first in a long time for Tallahassee’s progressive students– was only possible because of the people’s vigilance and determination, and it shows what we can achieve when we unite and fight the power!
Make no mistake: Queer students are still under attack from the rich and powerful, and we have to defend ourselves! No matter the repression from forces that seek to strip away our rights, we must never be afraid to stand on the right side and openly struggle for our liberation! We must not cower in fear thinking of what can be lost, but rather push forward thinking of what can be won!
The fight doesn’t end here! We have to carry forward the fighting spirit that defeated FSU Admin today, so that we can defeat Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis tomorrow! We must continue to be vigilant, organized, and united to fight for queer liberation! Because as this victory shows: When we dare to struggle, we dare to win!