Recently MSU was ranked 14th on bestcolleges.com’s list of the 30 best colleges in America for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) students. MSU was also the only school from the state of Michigan on the list.
In light of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage, this ranking portrays MSU as an inclusive community within a country that has taken a progressive step forward in the direction of equality.
“Michigan State is very uniquely situated to be a premier destination for LGBT college students,” MSU LBGT Resource Center assistant director Alex Lange said.
Lange said MSU offers many resources to its LGBT students, including 14 LGBT student organizations on campus, far more than his previous institution, which only had one.
MSU also has LGBT-related academics, such as the Center for Gender in a Global Context, as well as the LGBT studies minor, Lange said.
“We have academic places … that really situates us to be a critical place of scholarship and community for LGBT students moving forward,” Lange said.
MSU’s LBGT Resource center also offers much to students and staff, Lange said, including training to staff and faculty about being more inclusive, scholarships for LGBT students, community outreach programs, and connecting LGBT students to other resources.
Some of these other resources include partnerships with other identity based MSU offices, as well as health services and the counseling center, Lange said.
Though our resources are plentiful, do LGBT students agree MSU deserves the ranking?
“Something like this is really surprising to me, but it shows our work is paying off in some way, to be recognized at a national level like this,” computer science senior Louie Zedan, co-chair of the MSU LGBT Coalition, said.
Zedan said he believes there’s always something to work on and improve, since the goal of all of MSU’s LGBT organizations is to improve LGBT students’ experience
“The biggest thing to work on is reaching out to as many people as we can,” Zedan said.
The Coalition is a relatively new student organization that is meant to be a place where all the LGBT organizations on campus come together and discuss what they’re doing. Though Zedan is aware of all the LGBT resources MSU has to offer, he said students can sometimes feel overwhelmed by all the options, and, though having a safe space is important, so is reforming, advocating and educating people about LGBT students’ rights.
“It’s interesting cause I feel like MSU has … this kind of dichotomy where there’s a lot of people that are very supportive of LGBT issues,” education graduate student Ryan Hibbs said. “And then at the same time … you have a lot … of homophobia as well, but I think you get that anywhere.”
Discrimination against LGBT students at MSU is not explicit, Zedan said, it is more implied and systematic, in some cases portraying LGBT students as being tolerated, rather than accepted, because some MSU students are afraid to broach the subject.
Hibbs said he’s seen other LGBT students discriminated against at MSU and, though he’s never received much discrimination himself for being bisexual, when he cross-dresses for Halloween he receives a lot of harassment.
Though he sees students pushing to show pride and educate people about the LGBT community, Hibbs said he’d like to see similar events which are sponsored by MSU.
Hibbs said he’d also like to see MSU crackdown more on anti-harassment policies and create harsher penalties for harassing LGBT students.
Though Lange agrees MSU still has to work at becoming a more accepting and inclusive place for LGBT students, he thinks we’ve come a long way from where we we’re five years ago, and each year MSU becomes more accepting.
“The biggest acceptance and loving of LGBT folks has come from meeting other people, and so college is a great time for others to meet … people who are different from them,” Lange said.
As for the legalization of same-sex marriage, Lange said it makes the LGBT rights movement appear tangible to students, and it’s a powerful win for them.
But there are still higher rates of violence against LGBT people and homelessness within the LGBT community, so all the problems haven’t ended, Hibbs said.
Zedan agrees, given that it’s still legal to fire an LGBT person in 39 states, so he’s taking the time to celebrate marriage equality, while acknowledging there is so much more ahead for the equal rights movement.
