Bluegrass Community and Technical College freshman “Bunny” is no stranger to unsafe living situations. 

Bunny, a 23-year-old transgender man who requested to be identified by his nickname for safety reasons, said his parents were not accepting of his gender identity and, after coming out at 16, he endured years of emotional and occasionally physical abuse at home.

Bunny recalled the encounter that led to him filing a protective order and moving into a domestic violence shelter for women at 22, in which his drunken father flipped the couch he was sitting on, causing his face to hit the sharp edge of a nearby piano bench.

Bunny’s neighbors called the police, who told him they could not do anything because his father “didn’t lay a finger” on him. 

“It happened in a place that I live, the police didn’t do anything. And that tells me more than enough,” Bunny said. “That tells me if I get attacked, even if I have physical bruising on my face, like, evidence on my body, that doesn’t mean the police are gonna do anything.”

Bunny said he still faced transphobia from his roommate at the shelter in Richmond, Kentucky.

“At first they were using my proper pronouns, and then, after they started to like me less, they would intentionally misgender me,” Bunny said. “They had said about me, ‘If she’s a he, then he shouldn’t be in my room.’”

Seeking a home where he could feel comfortable being himself, he enrolled in BCTC and moved into a suite-style dorm on the University of Kentucky’s campus this past summer. 

He had a random male roommate at the start of the 2025 fall semester, but said they rarely interacted before the roommate moved out without notice.

Now, facing the removal of gender inclusive housing at UK, which would have allowed him to request to live with other transgender or non-binary students, Bunny is unsure where to go next. 

“I didn’t know about the gender inclusive housing program when I first applied, and now that I know about it, it sucks that it’s being taken away from me,” Bunny said. “That’s given me so much anxiety, because I can’t make sure that I room with someone who gets it, who isn’t going to be transphobic.”

Bunny said he feels trapped between the financial concerns of moving off campus — including higher rent and losing the convenience of an on-campus meal plan and guaranteed transportation — and the personal safety concerns of remaining in the dorms.

He said the anxiety of what his housing will look like next year, given his past experiences living with people who did not accept him, is weighing on him as he wraps up the semester.

“Obviously, I can’t go back to my parents’ place. I can’t go back to the shelter, either, because I just don’t qualify,” Bunny said. “From an academic standpoint, not feeling safe, the stress of that, can be really distracting and make it hard to focus on your assignments and everything that you need to do, make hard to study, make it hard to remember.”

Bunny is not the only student on UK’s campus experiencing anxiety surrounding their housing conditions now that gender-inclusive housing is not an option, according to STEMgiQueers Faculty Adviser Laura Letellier. 

Before its removal, students could opt into gender-inclusive housing through the UK housing portal. 

When the portal opened in October for the upcoming school year, students enrolled in the gender-inclusive program realized it was missing from the application and were then told by residence life it was no longer available, the Kentucky Kernel reported. 

The portal only gave them the option to live with those who already selected the same gender identity as them in myUK. Students also discovered as of Oct. 10, they could no longer change their gender markers or pronouns in the university registrar.

“They didn’t have to provide certification, a court order or a surgeon’s statement, they could just go in anytime, willingly change it,” Letellier said. “In terms of the gender-inclusive housing, there’s sort of a freedom to request the particular gender of the roommate you’re looking for. Now that is not the case.”

As a result, transgender and nonbinary students living on campus who had not yet updated the system to match their preferred identity will be placed in dorms based on their sex assigned at birth.

Max, a transgender University of Kentucky senior who lived with male-identifying roommates all four years of college by changing his pronouns in UK’s system, said he couldn’t imagine living in a dorm correlating with his biological sex.

“Getting rid of it (gender-inclusive housing) will cause students to feel unsafe, unwelcome and uncomfortable. I think if I was a freshman now, I would consider not living in the dorms or even going to UK,” Max said. “I don’t think a girl would feel comfortable living with me as I appear now. I feel like it would just be uncomfortable for both parties.”

Letellier said she has spoken with numerous concerned students, including an “effeminate” gay man who lives with women through gender-inclusive housing and two transgender women whose scholarships require them to live in a UK residence hall.

“You’re going to be telling them they have to live with a man, and to me, that’s just asking for trouble,” Letellier said. “You’re going to create a situation where there’s going to be real or perceived sexual pressure on either my transgender females or my gay men, and that disturbs me immensely that we would put people in that situation.”

Bunny said those concerns reflect some of his own fears about his housing placement, even though his gender markers are up to date. Being placed with a male roommate who does not affirm his identity, he said, could be dangerous.

“If they were to not see me as a man, then I am exposed to all the dangers of misogyny and living with a potentially misogynistic man, which includes potential sexual abuse as well as physical abuse, verbal abuse, emotional abuse,” Bunny said.

Tiana Thé, executive director for UKPR, said UK remains “committed to supporting all students” and can help any student in an uncomfortable living situation relocate.

“As always, if any student encounters any concerns regarding their housing or roommate assignment, UK Campus Housing and the Office for Student Success are here to work with the student to ensure they have a safe and comfortable living experience on campus,” Thé said in a text on Dec. 15. 

Bunny questioned UK’s decision to put transgender and nonbinary students in a potentially uncomfortable position in the first place.

“That’s (changing roommates) like, an entire process, though. Like, you need to make the request, more than likely will need to provide some kind of proof,” Bunny said. “The lack of fight makes me think less of them. It has been scientifically proven that trans people are valid, and it’s not a mental illness. Not standing up for what is factually correct doesn’t look good for an educational institution.”

Thé said the university has to comply with “state, federal and university policies,” listing House Bill 4, the ongoing Office for Civil Rights investigation and the DOJ DEI Bondi memo as reasons for the removal of gender-inclusive housing.

None of these directives mentions the words “gender identity,” “gender,” “transgender” or “nonbinary.” 

“It is clear that the federal government is interpreting discriminatory actions to include race, gender and other protected classes,” Thé said.

Letellier, who previously lived as a male and now openly shares her experience to support her students, said UK’s compliance has put her in an increasingly difficult position. 

“Throughout all of these events, it’s been challenging because some of our students took that very personally. You’re basically challenging their right to exist,” Letellier said. “Suddenly, now we’re not only the object of hatred by just the average person, but we’re the object of hatred by the federal government, denying our existence. And it feels like things have gotten worse and there’s nothing I can do to protect my students from the fallout.”

Emma Curtis, Lexington’s first transgender city councilmember, said UK is acting with what she called “preemptive compliance.”

“They went above and beyond the minimum that was required by law under House Bill 4 as well as the executive orders issued by the Trump administration,” Curtis said. “The idea that it is somehow illegal to put an optional check mark on a form to help pair roommates with similar lived experiences is just false.”

She criticized UK’s implementation of these changes, given the lack of a formal announcement they were coming or a written notification to students. 

“The fact that UK didn’t even communicate beforehand to the impacted individuals that this would be happening shows what little regard they have for trans and nonbinary students. The actual impact was an afterthought,” Curtis said. “It was just about getting on the good side of people who are never going to support a mission for an inclusive university.”

Curtis said the stakes of UK’s compliance-focused response are higher than the administration acknowledges.

“It’s not just a mental health risk, it’s not just UK’s administration giving the finger to a whole group of students based on their gender,” Curtis said. “It’s a real safety hazard for trans students, if they are not able to be housed with other students who are going to share their lived experiences and respect their basic humanity.”

She said she hopes changes at UK won’t make students feel forced to leave the city where she grew up, safely transitioned and became the second transgender elected official in Kentucky. 

“I want to reassure trans and LGBTQ students at the university that Lexington’s local government still has their back and we always will,” Curtis said. “They have rights and protections under our fairness ordinance. They have a place and a future in our city, and we will cherish them, even if UK won’t.”