Student Senate will vote on a piece of legislation at its Tuesday meeting that would add a Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Senator (GISO) to its chamber.
The GISO senator would represent the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community at SMU.
Sen. Harvey Luna (Dedman I) authored the bill with Student Body Secretary Katie Perkins, Sen. Soniyyah Blue (Perkins) and Sen. Rachel Fox (Dedman II).
The legislation defines the GISO senator as a special interest senator, similar to the African-American Senator or International Senator.
Under the legislation, LGBT students would have the option to self-identify as LGBT through the Registrar’s office. Only those students who self-identify as LGBT could vote or run for the seat.
“One of the main concerns from last semester, and this is something now Student Body Vice President-elect Alex Ehmke suggested, was having an election mechanism for the senator,” Luna said.
The bill adds a clause that if the LGBT constituency makes up at least 15 percent of the student body for at least two consecutive years, the seat will be eliminated.
If the bill passes, it will need to be ratified by the student body because it would change the student constitution.
If Student Senate cannot determine the percentage of LGBT students after two years, then the clause says that Senate will vote to either deactivate the GISO seat for one year or extend it for two years.
If deactivated, the bill calls on Senate to vote on the seat again after a year has passed to reactivate the seat for two years or to eliminate it permanently. The GISO seat would be automatically extended or reactivated if Senate fails to bring the motion to a vote.
Luna says the bill authors wanted to be realistic about the GISO seat. They added the vote clause because they “wanted to be realistic in… whether this senator was going to be able to enact enough change that we needed.”
The bill also adds gender, gender identity and gender expression to Student Senate’s non-discrimination policy, which already includes sexual orientation.
Luna has explained a variety of issues that LGBT students face during Senate meetings and Town Hall meetings, such as SMU’s lack of gender-neutral bathrooms and housing, as well as student-on-student harassment.
Several senators and guest speakers have argued before the chamber that LGBT students may not feel comfortable talking about specific issues with a senator who isn’t LGBT or who may not be familiar with LGBT issues.
Senate passed a resolution at its March 1 meeting that stated, “Student Senate, acting on behalf of the student body, officially extends their continued support to current and prospective SMU LGBT students.”
The bill, authored by Luna, denounced homophobic rhetoric and discrimination against LGBT students.
It encouraged senators to take Allies training from the Women’s Center.
In addition to the March 1 bill, Luna and others have been working to gather petition signatures for the LGBT seat and research about the LGBT population at SMU.
Student Senate viewed an excerpt of a documentary about LGBT students at SMU at their April 5 meeting.
Tuesday’s vote is the culmination of two years’ effort to install an LGBT seat in Student Senate. SMU alumnus Tom Elliott first began the campaign, but Luna took it up after Elliott graduated.
Last year’s Student Senate voted down a piece of legislation at their Dec. 1 meeting that would have allowed the student body to vote on whether or not to add an LGBT seat.
