Question When did Poe become the designated LGBTQ+ cottage?

I'm writing MicroScenes in commemoration of our fallen or beaten sisters, brothers, and siblings. Including Paragon (the student, 1987) and Drag Queen (the student). So in order to keep things as accurate as possible history/time/place-wise, I'm looking for anything regarding Poe's history. Feel free to contribute with anything.

Definitely later than 1975, when Poe was the Teachers' Dormitory.

I don't know when, but I can see three ways of it being done.

1. When it is switched from being a teacher's dorm, they only send LGBT+ students over.

2. They do a massive redorming over the summer, swapping students between cottages and again just assign LGBT+ students.

3. They do it over a period of years, just assigning incoming LGBT+ students to Poe until it's only them.

I think the first is the most likely.

In 1982 Tywyswyr convinced the head of the English Department, Liz Carson to fill in as an interim Headmistress to give the school stability. As she most assuredly didn't want the job and it was 'only temporary' she decided to ram through a number of changes she felt were needed. These were:

managed to talk Charlie Lodgeman into coming out of retirement,

got funding for the construction of Melville Cottage,

established Poe Cottage as an ‘Alternative Lifestyle’ haven

standardized the punishment system for infraction of the rules.

Her ‘temporary stay’ was prolonged several times, and in 1989, she was officially installed as Headmistress of Whateley.

Exact year? Hasn't come up, but there's your window. Tabby Cat remarks to her daughter she was a Poesey due to her status as a changeling and a 'libertine' sexually, she was a member of the Class of 86. So Liz probably started big with her building projects, so the change was probably in '82, which would make Tabby one of the first full Poe allumni to have been in the cottage her entire tenure at the school. So, call it Fall Semester '82.

To add a bit of wild guessing to E.E.'s canon infodrop:

If Carson assumed that her stint was temporary, she WOULD want to assure that her most controversial change would be a fait accompli and difficult to reverse by the time she was replaced. The other changes are not controversial, but Poe could be. So she would start on her "LGBT dorm" pet project right away.

First step would be to find other housing for single teachers, who previously occupied Poe. It just might be that the Village was already a going concern by then, and there were already advanced plans to move the single teachers close to their married counterparts, so they would be able to socialize more out of office hours. If so, Carson would have just have to push the deadlines in order that Poe be vacated on time for a full renovation to be complete before September admission.

Opening a new dorm would give a good excuse to move known LGBT students there "to ease pressure on the other dorms." Many of those would be closeted but known to the school admins in one way or another, and possibly the first one to be invited to move would bring others the school was unaware of.

Re Tabby: if she was Class of 86, this means that she likely enrolled in September 82 (assuming that she got the full four-years Whateley Experience). Was Liz able to get all her ducks in a row and open the new Poe before that? Maybe, maybe not. If not, it might be that Tabby had a difficult year as a gendermorph in another cottage -- but the school WOULD be aware of her situation (it's a medical/powers issue), and she would be one of the ones invited to move to Poe in 83. I don't remember right now if she originally enrolled as a boy; if so, the move would also afford her the opportunity to change identities -- that "weird scrawny boy who keeps to himself" from Emerson or Twain "dropped out", and a new "sexually aggressive hot transfer student girl" shows up in Poe.

I had the impression that the catalyst was the murder of Paragon, but if Tabby Cat had graduated a year earlier and was in Poe all (or at least most) of her time at Whateley, then clearly I'd misunderstood.

I'm guessing that it's fall of '83. Tabby has repeated problems her freshman year that Liz knows about, and she wants to give Tabby a safe place. Liz also knows Mrs. Horton and recruits her to be the new House Mother. The teachers in Poe move into The Village, which while not complete or maybe even as "nice" as Poe, is away from where the students can easily find them.

Tabby's wildness and such establishes Poe as the "nuthouse." (But my roommate thinks he's Napoleon!)

Other LGBT students are subtly recruited so the Second Floor is mostly full. Some upperclassmen and incoming Freshmen that have answered the gender/sexuality question appropriately. (I wonder when that was put in the application.)

This may be a WAG or even a SWAG, but I'm going to say that the question of gender change was put in the application form as soon as the administration knew that it had happened....

Ah, "the question." This is a WAG, but I would bet that it wasn't there when the school opened, and even when the admin began to realize that it was going to be an ongoing issue, the initial versions of the question was put in a way more circumspect way, such as "does your power manifestation seem to be inordinately (that is, more than what's expected from adolescence) affecting:
( ) your height
( ) your strength
( ) your mental acuity
( ) your digestion
( ) your muscle and body fat distribution
( ) your skeletal shape
( ) your hormonal balance and sexual development

Eventually someone decided to be more blunt about it.

Sir Lee wrote: Ah, "the question." This is a WAG, but I would bet that it wasn't there when the school opened, and even when the admin began to realize that it was going to be an ongoing issue, the initial versions of the question was put in a way more circumspect way, such as "does your power manifestation seem to be inordinately (that is, more than what's expected from adolescence) affecting:
( ) your height
( ) your strength
( ) your mental acuity
( ) your digestion
( ) your muscle and body fat distribution
( ) your skeletal shape
( ) your hormonal balance and sexual development

Eventually someone decided to be more blunt about it.

() Old boob size
() New boob size

A more important question is when was the application first used. From Mimeo's story it seems that the first few classes were a combination of teenaged criminals, and exsidekicks, and other recommendations. There were no applicants, just recommendations.

Edit:
Remember that the school was tiny, even through the end of the 20th Century when there were still only 200ish students. (Yes I consider that small, tiny even. But my high school PE classes were that big and we had 21 PE classes. 14 were smaller around 150 students and 7 around 200.)

Hmmm... Ty West gave a slick brochure for the school to DR DNA's dad in 1968... I'd dare say that slick brochures go hand-in-hand with Application Forms. Sooo... sometime prior to that.