All-Girls Dorm Allegedly Bans Student from Having Her Girlfriend Over

A Texas student from the University of Texas said that the private dormitory that she lives in will not allow her to have guests in the dorm.

University of Texas Kaj Baker told KEYE-TV that she is the only student from the Scottish Rite Dormitory (SRD) that is not allowed to have any guests for the rest of the year because she is gay. Baker said an SRD administrator told her other women were complaining about Baker and her girlfriend studying together in the lounge too much and had fallen asleep on the lounge sofas once.

"The list of complaints weren't us doing anything wrong. We weren't harming anyone. We weren't doing PDA. We weren't breaking any rules. It was us existing," Baker told KEYE-TV.

Baker also said that the administrator said other residents were uncomfortable with her and her girlfriend using the bathroom.

"They told me that girls need to feel safe here, and I asked her if we made people feel unsafe. She said, 'I'm not going there. I'm not going there just yet,'" Baker told the news station.

Baker told The Daily Texan that she met with SRD Director Mary Mazurek and SRD registrar Meshelle Bourne to talk about the guest rules in the dormitory on November 14. In a recording obtained by the publication, Mazurek told Baker that some of the residents in the dorm were not comfortable with her sexual orientation.

"We're trying to make sure that everybody — all 315 residents — feels more comfortable," Mazurek said in her meeting, according to the recording obtained by The Daily Texan. "And sometimes that takes compromise on both sides to do that."

A copy of the dorm contract obtained by KEYE-TV states that there are restricted visiting hours male guests but female guests are allowed. It also stated that females who stay overnight must be registered with the dorm, but Baker told the news station that her girlfriend never stayed overnight at the dormitory. Baker is now demanding an apology from the administrators, KEYE-TV reported.

"If this guest ban was simply about the rules then us being gay or me being gay should have never been brought into it at all," she told the news station.

Newsweek has reached out to SRD for comment on the allegations but did not hear back in time for publication. In a statement to KEYE-TV, Mazurek said the dorm focuses on giving students an environment to complete "their higher education goals" but did not mention the allegations.

"Scottish Rite Dormitory strives to create an environment which allows our residents to focus on completing their higher education goals while meeting our parent's expectation of creating an atmosphere that fosters the growth and well being of their daughters while attending the University," the statement read. "We have no further comment. Thank you."

Baker's girlfriend, Carlee, has launched a GoFundMe account to help raise money for new housing for the University of Texas freshman and for potential legal services.

"Seeing her feeling this way breaks my heart, as this is not how we imagined our first year at college together would be," she wrote on the campaign website. "Kaj is the sun, and she should be shining right now- not being punished for being who she is."

Earlier this month, a GoFundMe campaign raised over $100,000 for a student-athlete who was disowned by her parents because she was gay and had a girlfriend. Emily Scheck, a cross-country runner for Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, told her supporters that she would stop accepting donations after the thousands of dollars she received from kind strangers who wanted to help her land back on her feet.