College Students

LGBTQ students exist on every college campus regardless of institutional type (2- or 4-year, public or private, religiously affiliated or secular), region, or size. LGBTQ students are diverse across several dimensions, including demographics and identity (e.g., race, ethnicity, social class, age, faith tradition, nationality), academic majors and interests, and academic experiences (e.g., transfer students, part-time and full-time status, student veterans). They also differ within the LGBTQ category by sexual orientation and gender identity; a growing number of students identify outside the categories represented in the LGBTQ acronym as, for example, pansexual, asexual, or genderqueer. Despite increased visibility of LGBTQ college students, only a handful of institutions ask students for their sexual orientation and gender identity in a way that makes it possible to determine with ...