[mrnoble]

In response to the request for advice from a mentor who has travelled with trans students, here is my experience.

Last year, we had one trans student and a number of out gay or lesbian students travel to Utah. Initially, we arranged for our trans student to stay in his own room, but after talking with him, his family, and the family of one of the lesbian students, the two of them decided they wanted to room together. Everyone agreed, and it worked out fine, no issues.

If we hadn't had the open communication with parents (and I understand that is often the case), we would have had him room on his own, much as we've had students take a single room who have any other reasonable motive. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen, and we plan these rooms into our budget. I agree that the old gender binary norms don't give much guidance on these things, and that school rules are often less than helpful. It's frustrating to me that folks talk about this as though it were a safety issue.