Four things to look for when searching for colleges with your LGBTQIA+ student
Being openly LGBTQIA+ comes with a lot of joy. Teens are able to be themselves, find folks with similar experiences, and envision their future with clarity and optimism. At the same time, queer and trans teens may face ignorance, bigotry, and discrimination.
When it comes to picking a college, there are campus environments that will allow LGBTQIA+ students to experience more of these joys and fewer of these challenges. But how do you help your LGBTQIA+ teen find this type of environment? What do you look for?
An LGBTQIA+ student-run club is a good place to start, but it is the bare minimum. It tells you that there are some queer and trans students on campus, enough to form a club, but it says very little about the way in which the institution supports its LGBTQIA+ population on a structural level and day-to-day basis. When looking for a college that really values its queer and trans student population, here are four things to think about.
1. Does the institution have an LGBTQIA+ resource center?
Gender and sexuality resource centers offer programming and community-building for the queer and trans community. They sometimes offer employment opportunities as well, allowing students to build their professional skills while working on behalf of a population they care deeply about.
Beyond programming and community-building, campus LGBTQIA+ resource centers offer something crucial: advocacy for the needs of the queer and trans population on campus. Though student activism can certainly be impactful, it is an enormous help to have staff members whose job it is to make sure the relevant campus offices are meeting the needs of the LGBTQIA+ population. It behooves universities to put this support in place.
Queer and trans individuals have interests outside of being queer and trans, but they cannot pursue these interests if they are spending their time fighting for their basic needs. Having staff on campus to support them and advocate for them is essential.
2. Does the university have resources like gender-affirming health care, gender-inclusive restrooms, and gender-inclusive housing?
Traditionally, housing is assigned by gender. You are either a woman or a man, and your roommate will be someone of the same gender. This will not cut it for many LGBTQIA+ students. With a growing population of nonbinary and gender nonconforming students, some universities are updating their practices to meet the needs of these populations.
While nonbinary individuals have a more pressing need for this housing option, cisgender LGBTQIA+ students and binary transgender students may also be more comfortable having a roommate assigned based on personality, sleep habits, or daily routine rather than gender.
When researching universities, find out how they assign housing. If they have a gender-inclusive housing option in which housing is assigned without regard to gender, this is a positive sign and an option that your student may require or appreciate.
3. Are gender-inclusive resources well advertised and easy for students to access?
It is one thing for an institution to say on their website that they have gender-inclusive resources; it’s another for students to be aware of them and actually utilize them.
When touring a campus, ask your tour guide how students can change their name and pronouns in campus records. Ask them if they have gender-inclusive restrooms in their dorm. You can also ask broader questions about the level of gender and sexuality diversity on campus.
If you don’t feel comfortable asking these questions on a tour, that alone may give you important information about the university.
4. Where is the university located? What is the culture and political environment of that city and state?
State legislatures around the country are enacting policies that restrict the rights and freedoms of queer and trans people. LGBTQIA+ students should consider this when evaluating the fit of a school.
They should consider both the policy and the culture of the city and state where the university is located and decide if they would be safe and comfortable there. Movement Advancement Project (MAP) has resources on their website that can help you learn about policies impacting LGBTQIA+ equality in different states.
As with many elements of the college process, there are no hard and fast rules to this. Talk with your student to see what’s important to them in terms of the LGBTQIA+ campus community and structural support from the institution.
You will be juggling numerous priorities in addition to your student’s needs as an LGBTQIA+ person: academic programs, cost of attendance, and size of the university are just a few examples. Choosing a college is not a simple decision, but gathering information about LGBTQIA+ life at the institutions your student is considering will help them narrow down their options and ultimately land on a post-high school plan that they feel good about.