LGBTQA Students on Campus: Is Higher Education Making the Grade?

As D’Augelli and Grossman note “educational researchers have overlooked the development of sexual orientation among adolescents and youth.” Certainly, those working in higher education have, in many cases, overlooked lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and ally (LGBTQA) students’ needs and not provided sufficient resources to address their issues and concerns on campus (Rankin, 2003). This climate of exclusion certainly creates a campus environment that marginalizes LGBTQA students. But, what have we learned from researchers who have studied both LGBT and other minority students’ experiences of their campus environment and its influences on both learning and developmental outcomes? What role does their perception of campus climate play on these students’ educational outcomes and what are the differences among students from different social groups? And, finally, how can this frame our future research efforts?