Queer In College, Part 1: The College Search
We’re rapidly nearing August, and the back-to-school season for many of us. For rising seniors such as myself, there’s likely one thing at the forefront of your mind: the future. The end of public education draws ever closer, and with it, the beginning of whatever future path you may choose — whether that be a career, trade school, or college.
I’m one of the millions currently up to my ears in the college search. As I’ve been looking at various factors for each institution — available majors, size, location, on-campus resources, and the like — I realized that my identity as a queer person was affecting my options. I wanted to go somewhere that’d be welcoming and safe, ruling out numerous states due to their harmful policies. As I was pondering this, I thought about the many others who were likely in my same situation. With my new internship and task of creating blog posts, I thought “what better than to write an article about it?” So, here we are!
“It’s useful for people of all ages and identities to understand the effects of being Queer on seemingly unrelated things.”
Welcome to the first article in my miniseries Queer in College. Over the next few months, I plan to cover the various aspects of the higher education experience and how being LGBTQ+ affects them. Today’s topic is the college search process. While the information and advice provided is mainly geared towards LGBTQ+ people searching for colleges, I believe it’s useful for people of all ages and identities to understand the effects of being queer on seemingly unrelated things.
According to a study done by the UCLA Williams Institute, LGBTQ+ people are twice as likely to pick a college further away from home to get away from family than non-LGBTQ+ people. It makes sense — a different survey, done by the Pew Research Center, shows that 39% of LGBTQ+ people have felt rejected by a family member or close friend due to their identity. No matter the reasoning behind the discrimination — whether it be religious views, political opinions, expectations for a certain life, or any myriad of other possibilities — it’s exhausting and disheartening to deal with. I’m relatively lucky: while I have had to deal with the occasional rude comment, they’re pretty uncommon. My family may not be amazingly accepting and supportive, but they are tolerant. I’m also fortunate that despite my not-so-friendly area, I attend a very accepting school. Still, like many others, I see a new life at a college or university as a potential escape from these struggles.
““Like many others, I see a new life at a college or university as a potential escape from these struggles.””
In addition to being likelier to attempt to escape their families, LGBTQ+ people are also four times more likely than their cishet peers to go to a college away from home to find an environment welcoming and accepting of their identity. Once again, it’s not hard to see why. Unfortunately, a large portion of LGBTQ+ people live in hostile areas. The Movement Advancement Project says that 45% of the American LGBTQ+ population lives in states with negative policy tallies (meaning states with a lack of diversity-protecting laws and a surplus of discriminating ones). While a move to a far-off college can be a great way to find a more welcoming community, not all campuses are created equal when it comes to finding an escape from discrimination. Any institution's LGBTQ+-friendliness is dependent on factors ranging from state laws to individual campus resources. While it can be difficult and stressful to do the necessary research on these policies, there are plenty of resources that can help.
Movement Advancement Project’s map of “safe” and “unsafe” zones for LGBTQ+ policies
Starting at the state level, maps (such as ones produced by the Movement Advancement Project and SafeHome.org) can be useful when looking for a general overview of a state. Each organization has a different method, making it useful to compare and contrast multiple maps. The MAP map (ha!) judges solely on LGBTQ+-related laws and policies that the project tracks. The one produced by SafeHome, on the other hand, gives grades based on both laws and the amount of hate crimes in each state. In my own research, I found it was helpful to use the simplicity of maps to quickly rule out states that consistently got low marks from various organizations. For states with mixed ratings, I decided to look a bit more in-depth.
The State Scorecards produced by the The Human Rights Campaign are a great option for this thorough research, providing comprehensive breakdowns of pro- and anti-equality laws over six categories in each of the 50 states and D.C. The categories include hate crimes & criminal justice, non-discrimination, and youth laws. Since no state checks every box, the easily understood information in the scorecards is useful when prioritizing laws most relevant and important to you.
While looking into state laws can help rule out any outright unsafe places to be, to find a truly welcoming community, it’s necessary to go further into detail. Campus Pride is an especially amazing website for this. They provide a detailed Campus Pride Index, a database ranking hundreds of U.S. colleges regarding their LGBTQ+-friendliness. The index covers numerous factors across eight topics for each institution, including policies, safety, housing, and community. In addition, they have numerous other resources, such as the Ultimate Queer College Guide and a separate Sports Index for queer athletes. Their Worst List and Best List are also available for anyone wanting to immediately eliminate or add colleges from their list. I’ve been using the information provided by the Index as another factor to help me narrow down my drafted college list. While it can be helpful for an occasionally indecisive person such as myself to have more factors to consider, it’s strange knowing that it’s something that I need to think about. As many people are checking for communities surrounding their interests, I’m looking for one accepting of a basic facet of my identity.
“As many people are checking for communities surrounding their interests, I’m looking for one accepting of a basic facet of my identity.”
With the above in mind, it’s clear that being LGBTQ+ can further complicate the already stressful college search. However, that doesn’t make it impossible to navigate — there are numerous resources, like the many listed above, available for those who need them. Join me in the next article for more information on the college process as a queer person, focusing on applications and scholarships.
Sally Leonard (any pronouns) is a Summer 2024 Intern at Stonewall Chico. They are passionate about LGBTQ+ issues and journalism, and plan to study music and linguistics in their academic future. You can follow them at @sally.v.leonard.