# Dorm Policies: An equal protection violation against heterosexuals?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dorm-policies-an-equal-protection-violation-against-heterosexuals/624539>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 8, 2012, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dorm-policies-an-equal-protection-violation-against-heterosexuals/624539 "2012-06-08T19:33:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dorm-policies-an-equal-protection-violation-against-heterosexuals/624539/41 "2012-06-12T21:51:31Z")

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> [@Rand\_Rover](#):
>
> If you’d like to make an argument that the policy violates the Equal Protection Clause, then I’ll respond to it.

I actually know nothing about it, but because I’m curious to hear your response, I’ll say “I hereby argue that the policy violates the Equal Protection Clause.”

Your response would then be that it it does/doesn’t because…

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**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dorm-policies-an-equal-protection-violation-against-heterosexuals/624539/42 "2012-06-13T03:58:13Z")

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> [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](#):
>
> Besides the security and the privacy issues, bathrooms can also be a reason for no overnight rules. What do you do with an out of town boyfriend, in a women’s dorm, when there is no men’s bathroom? From experience, I know it can be ackward to discover a pair of men’s feet in the adjoining shower stall.

When I visited my girlfriend (at the time) at her all-girls school, there were signs kept near the bathroom door with some cutesy clip-art (I believe a caricature of a circus strongman) and the phrase “MAN IN THE CAN” which one was to hang on the bathroom door if one’s male overnight guest were using the showers or toilets.

Given the culture implied, I doubt it will come as any surprise that it didn’t seem to stop people coming in, which is arguably just as weird for the band geek trying to shower in a girl’s dorm.

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**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dorm-policies-an-equal-protection-violation-against-heterosexuals/624539/43 "2012-06-13T05:50:59Z")

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> [@Freudian\_Slit](#):
>
> I’ve never heard of a college having that kind of policy on overnight guests, whether same or opposite sex. Is your niece going a very conservative/religious school? (In which case the possibility of homosexual cohabitation may not even be acknowledged…)

Well, I went to a catholic university in the 00s and the rules were no opposite sex people in the dorms after 12 on school nights and 2 on the weekend. The interesting thing was that on-campus apartments had 24 hour visitation, but no sleeping. If for some reason the RA stopped by at 3 in the morning, John and Jane better be playing parcheesi, not that anyone ever stopped by.

The few same sex couples I knew of usually ended up just rooming with each other.

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