Finding the right roommate can be hard, especially if you're doing it online. You have to make sure you and this other person are on the same page when it comes to cleaning, loud noises, guests, rent budgets and now, apparently, politics. At least, that's the case if you happened to stumble upon Sahar Kian's Craigslist post advertising a room in a house not far from Georgetown University.
Kian's post started like so many other Craigslist roommate posts do, with a description of the type of living environment already maintained in the home. "Alcohol, pets and meat products are not allowed in the house," Kian wrote. Then she went on to say, "Neither are Trump supporters."
This is by no means the first roommate post on Craigslist explicitly saying that Trump supporters need not apply. As The New York Times pointed out, more than a few roommate posts in the D.C. area alone fall in line with Kian's post. And while some see this as blatant discrimination against others based on their political views, Kian stands by her decision to bar Trump supporters from her house's open room.
"It doesn't say no conservatives in my ad, it doesn't say no Republicans, it doesn't say no Christians, it says no Trump supporters. There's a distinction between Republican, conservative and Trump supporters," Kian told CNN.
She went on to argue that there's a time and a place for political debates, but that shouldn't be in the home. Regardless of personal political views, this is a hard point to argue against, considering how divided America is right now and how heated debates have become since the 2016 election.
"I would be more than happy to settle issues with you at protests or in a Congress setting ... but I am not obligated to turn my house into a political battlefield when I come home from work in the evening," Kian said in her CNN interview. She also said that this no-Trump clause is in partial consideration of her roommates; some of them are immigrants and feel particularly uncomfortable with Trump's views on immigration.
Kian told The New York Times that Trump supporters who are upset about this clause should think about it more before they speak. After all, would they want to live in a house full of Trump protesters any more so than those protesters would want to live with a supporter?
"Frankly, it would not work out," Kian said when asked by The New York Times about why she felt it necessary to include such a clause in her Craigslist post. "That person would not be comfortable here because we bash Trump nightly."