National LGBT-Friendly College Fair to be held Oct. 2 in coordination with Pride Charlotte, in partnership with Time Out Youth and Lesbian & Gay Community Center of Charlotte

(Charlotte, N.C.) – Campus Pride is pleased to announce the historic first stop in its 2010-11 LGBT-Friendly College Fair, a program now in its fourth year connecting LGBT students and their parents to LGBT-friendly colleges and universities across the country.

Campus Pride, a national non-profit working to create safer, more LGBT-inclusive colleges and build future LGBT and ally leaders, will hold its first 2010-11 LGBT-Friendly College Fair in Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 2, Noon -3:30 p.m., at The NC Music Factory. The event, held in collaboration with the annual Pride Charlotte festival, Time Out Youth and the Lesbian & Gay Community Center of Charlotte, marks the first time the College Fair program has visited the Southeastern U.S. and the first time it will be held in conjunction with a Pride festival.

“Our LGBT-Friendly College Fair’s event in Charlotte presents a unique opportunity for Carolinas and Southeastern students, families and universities,” said Shane Windmeyer, executive director of Campus Pride. “Prospective students want to attend campuses that are a welcoming and safe place to learn, live and grow. Our Fair’s presence in the Southeast will help students there find LGBT-friendly colleges from across the country.”

Last year, Campus Pride made a commitment to grow attendance at the Fair by partnering strategically with local LGBT and ally youth organizations as well as hosting in more progressive metropolitan “queer meccas” of LGBT activism – New York, Los Angles and Boston. That commitment continues this year with the Fair’s first stop in Charlotte and a later stop in Portland, Ore., on Oct. 16.

Windmeyer encourages greater Charlotte, the Carolinas and Southeastern college and university officials to attend the Fair, and said, “There is indeed LGBT progress in Charlotte, the Carolinas and the southeastern United States. Our LGBT-friendly national college fair program showcases campuses who want to recruit out LGBT & ally students. It sends a clear message: ‘Gay students are welcome, even celebrated on this campus.’”

Free and open to the public, the Campus Pride’s LGBT-Friendly College Fairs allow any student and their family the opportunity to interact with colleges and universities that value LGBT and ally people. Registration for schools is $195 to $250 per fair for each institution and is open to any college or university across the United States. Each fair will also feature expert advice about LGBT-friendly colleges, scholarship resources and even effective tips for campus visits.

Campus Pride’s 2010-2011 LGBT-Friendly National College Fair Program will visit: Charlotte (Oct. 2), Portland (Oct. 16), New York (Nov. 5), Boston (Nov. 6), Los Angeles (April 9). More details on each event, which are free to current or prospective students, can be found at www.campusclimateindex.org/events.

In addition to this year’s LGBT-Friendly College Fair program, Campus Pride is proud to announce its forthcoming national LGBT climate research in the report, “State of Higher Education for LGBT People,” in partnership with its Q Research Institute for Higher Education.

Written by Sue Rankin, Ph.D., Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld, Ed.D., Genevieve N. Weber, Ph.D., LMHC and Somjen Frazer, MS, Ed. and a foreword by George Kuh, Ph.D., “The State of Higher Education for LGBT People” is the most comprehensive national research of its kind to date. The report documents experiences of nearly 6,000 students, faculty, staff and administrators who identify as LGBT at colleges and universities across the United States. Recommendations and findings from the national study provide the means for student activists, campus program planners and policy makers to implement strategic initiatives to address the needs and concerns of their LGBT students and employees. The research will be available in September, with a special webinar slated for Sept. 21 and a national policy briefing at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 23. For more information, visitwww.campuspride.org/research.

To learn more about Campus Pride programs and services, please visit www.CampusPride.org or email info@campuspride.org.

Photo: Pride Charlotte 2008. Credit: Willamor Media, via Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons.

The controversy over Target and Best Buy contributions to a Minnesota political action committee funding anti-LGBT gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer has reached mammoth proportions. Hundreds of thousands of boycott notices have been delivered to both companies. Those protesting range from LGBT community members upset with Emmer's negative social agenda to those upset with Target's and Best Buy's "buying" of elections through their $150,000 and $100,000 contributions, respectively.

Regardless of any external controversy, one of those companies is continuing in its commitment to offer safe, welcoming and inclusive workplaces for their LGBT employees. Campus Pride's executive director, Shane Windmeyer, experienced that commitment firsthand this week when he was invited as a special guest to address the PRIDE Employee Business Network (EBN) at the Best Buy district headquarters in Charlotte, which oversees the company's Territory 7 including all stores located in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.

Windmeyer was invited to speak about "Community Partnerships" -- a core belief of Best Buy in enhancing relations with various components and communities of diversity. The PRIDE EBN is an internal Best Buy network with various regional representations of employees who actively work to embrace LGBT employees and customers as well as enhance Best Buy outreach and relations. In 2008, Best Buy through it's employee volunteer program had a student named Zach Rose-Heim who initiated the community partnership with Campus Pride. Best Buy became an annual community partner by donating equipment, goods and services to the Campus Pride Summer Leadership Camp and also making a $2500 monetary donation through Zach's volunteer time.

Continue reading after the jump...

On Thursday, Campus Pride and CampusSpeak presented an exclusive webinar on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. The document below, written by Shannon P. Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Christopher Stoll, senior staff attorney, explains what the decision means for university student groups and policies governing them.

In Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the University of California Hastings College of the Law’s “all comers” nondiscrimination policy, which requires registered student organizations to open their membership to all students, regardless of a student’s status or beliefs, rejecting a First Amendment challenge to the policy. For university counsel and administrators considering implementing or revising a nondiscrimination policy that is applicable to registered student organizations, several lessons can be drawn from the Court’s decision.

• An “all comers” policy is clearly permissible and constitutional. The Supreme Court’s decision clearly establishes that a public university may enforce a nondiscrimination policy that requires all officially-recognized student organizations to allow any interested student to become a member and to be eligible for leadership positions regardless of their status or beliefs. Such a policy would mean, for example, that an African-American student organization must accept members who are not African-American, a College Democrats chapter must accept Republican students as members, and a Christian student group must accept non-Christians and openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students as members. Under this type of policy, student groups that wish to limit their membership based on status or belief cannot be registered student organizations and are not eligible for funding and other school resources; they are treated like other unofficial student groups and are subject to the rules and policies that apply to such unofficial groups.

• An “all comers” policy may be applied to eligibility for leadership positions as well as general voting membership. The Supreme Court upheld Hastings’ requirement that registered student organizations not only must admit all interested students as full voting members, but also must permit all interested students to be eligible to become officers or leaders of the organization. Under the policy upheld by the Supreme Court, student groups may choose any method they wish of selecting officers, but groups must allow any interested student to run for office without regard to his or her status or belief.

• Under an “all comers” policy, student groups can have merit-based eligibility requirements. The Supreme Court upheld Hastings’ “all comers” policy even though some groups, such as honor societies and student journals, imposed grade point average requirements or selected members on the basis of a writing competition. Even under an “all comers” policy, a university may permit student groups to impose objective, merit-based membership requirements. The Supreme Court recognized that merit-based requirements are different than excluding students based on the student’s status or beliefs.

• Category-based nondiscrimination policies are also likely permissible and constitutional, so long as they are enforced even-handedly. The Supreme Court did not directly consider whether a school could have a nondiscrimination policy that prohibits student groups from discriminating against certain categories of people (for example, race, sex, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity). However, the Court’s analysis of the “all comers” policy in CLS v. Martinez strongly suggests that this kind of category-based nondiscrimination policy is likely also permissible and raises no constitutional problem. In fact, Justice Stevens’ concurring opinion stressed that a non-discrimination policy based on categories would be constitutional for the same reasons that an all-comers policy is constitutional.

• Rules barring students who engage in same-sex intimacy or any sexual intimacy outside of a heterosexual marriage discriminate based on sexual orientation. In the Supreme Court, the Christian Legal Society argued that it was not discriminating based on sexual orientation, but instead was merely imposing a “moral conduct” requirement that required all its members to refrain from all sexual activity outside of a traditional marriage between different-sex spouses. The Supreme Court rejected CLS’s argument and ruled that imposing such a conduct requirement is discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The effect of this ruling is that universities may prohibit registered student groups from imposing moral codes or other “conduct” requirements on their members that have the purpose or effect of discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender students.

• University nondiscrimination policies must be enforced in an even-handed manner that does not single out particular groups for differential treatment. The Supreme Court held that selective enforcement of a university nondiscrimination policy against some student groups but not others may violate the First Amendment. For example, if the university prohibited a Christian student group from excluding non-Christians from membership, but permitted a Muslim student group to exclude non-Muslims, the Christian group may have a valid claim that its First Amendment rights were violated.

For more information about the case or its implications for university student group policies, contact NCLR at: www.nclrights.org or info@nclrights.org.

InsideHigherEd.com reports today on proposed changes to the Common Application, an admissions application used by 415 colleges and universities across the country. The national non-profit group might add questions on sexual orientation and gender identity.

InsideHigherEd.com reports:

The Common Application is considering adding voluntary questions about applicants' sexual orientation and gender identity. The application is used by hundreds of colleges and universities -- including many of the most competitive.

The current norm in higher education is not to ask such questions, even on a voluntary basis. But with more students coming out in high school, and with some colleges explicitly taking steps to recruit gay applicants, some admissions officers and some advocates for gay students want to encourage colleges to ask the questions. But the possible switch could be controversial. The Common Application has conducted a nonbinding survey of its members and -- while not releasing results -- has indicated that the membership is split. (The association's board will decide the question.)

Some of the proposals include adding a drop down menu listing several sexual orientations. Such a form, InsideHigherEd.com reports, "would let students select gay/lesbian, bisexual, straight/heterosexual or "another identity" that could be listed." Another proposal suggests adding a blank text field allowing students to enter any identity of their own choosing.

The proposals on gender identity are a bit stickier. Some federal regulations require collection of information on students' male or female gender. InsideHigherEd.com reports: "On the issue of gender identity, the Common Application is considering options that would explain why the male/female question must be asked consistent with federal reporting requirements, but which would then go on to tell applicants that if there is a word that better describes their identity beyond male or female, they are welcome to add that."

Campus Pride Executive Director Shane Windmeyer was interviewed for the piece:

Shane L. Windmeyer, the founder of Campus Pride, a national group that works on behalf of gay students and sponsors college fairs at which gay students can meet college representatives, said it was past time for colleges to add such questions. "It is 2010," he said. "Colleges should take responsibility for their LGBT students at the front end of the admissions process. We have students from across the country who are already out when they apply, and this should just be part of the process. There is no reason these students should be invisible when it comes to applying for college."

Both Campus Pride and the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals have been among groups urging adoption of the new questions in the Common Application.

Read InsideHigherEd.com's entire report...

What are your thoughts? Would you complete voluntary questions regarding your sexual orientation and gender identity? Tell us why or why not in the comment section below.

Campus Pride Founder and Executive Director Shane Windmeyer appeared on the Keith Larson Show (WBT 1110 AM, Charlotte, NC, www.wbt.com/larson/index.aspx) on Thursday, Aug. 5, to discuss recent updates to the LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index. Recently, Campus Pride announced 19 schools had achieved a five-star rating in the Index, the highest number of schools achieving the top rating since its inception in 2007-08.

Windmeyer discusses with Larson, a conservative-Libertarian radio host, the top-rated campuses and a bit about our upcoming LGBT-Friendly National College Fair stop in Charlotte on Oct. 2.

Listen to the interview (click to play in browser, if supported, or right click and "Save link/target as..." to download).

You can subscribe to Larson podcasts or listen live when his show airs weekday mornings 9 a.m. to noon. Visit www.wbt.com/larson/index.aspx for more information.

Thanks to The Advocate (and a bevy of other news-media across the nation) for the coverage of Campus Pride's 19 five-star-rated campuses in our LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index.

Be sure to check out our two releases on the subject:
"Campus Pride Climate Index ranks gay-friendliness of American colleges and universities" Aug. 2
"Campus Pride successful in changing "Alternative Lifestyle" Princeton Review list wording" Aug. 4

From The Advocate:

Read the rest at Advocate.com...

See 10+ more headlines from around the nation after the jump...

National LGBT organization still cautions using the Top 20 LGBT-friendly list due to flawed methodology; instead encourages referencing the Princeton Review list with the comprehensive Campus Pride Climate Index ratings available without charge online

(Charlotte, NC) – Campus Pride, a national non-profit working to create safer, more LGBT-inclusive colleges and to build future LGBT and ally leaders, is pleased with the Princeton Review’s decision to change problematic wording in its list title regarding LGBT acceptance and safety on college campuses in the release of “The Best 373 Colleges” (Random House/Princeton Review, $22.99). Despite the change in language, however, Campus Pride continues to caution parents, families and LGBT students on Princeton Review’s rankings, which include no comprehensive review of LGBT campus climates, policies or practices, and urges the use of its far more detailed and free of charge online LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index (www.campusclimateindex.org).

Each year, Princeton Review publishes its lists of the 300-some best colleges in the nation and includes lists of campuses where LGBT students are either most or least accepted. As per the recommendation of Campus Pride, the old lists, titled “Gay Community Accepted” and “Alternative Lifestyle Not An Alternative”, have been changed to “LGBT-Friendly” and “LGBT-Unfriendly.”

The change comes four years after repeated requests by Campus Pride to change the problematic wording. In addition, Campus Pride in partnership with other national organizations also successfully persuaded Princeton Review to change the non-inclusive and outdated wording in the question on LGBT acceptance it asks students. The old question – “Is there very little discrimination against homosexuals?” – was replaced with: “Do students, faculty, and administrators at your college treat all persons equally regardless of their sexual orientations and gender identity/expression?”

“Campus Pride is pleased that the Princeton Review decided to change not only the question it asks students but the title it gives its two lists, although we still have many concerns regarding the company’s approach, overall LGBT knowledge base and commitment to detail,” said Windmeyer, author of “The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students” (Allyson Books, 2006), the first-ever guide profiling the 100 Best LGBT-Friendly Colleges.

Read more after the jump...

Campus Pride Climate Index ranks gay-friendliness of American colleges and universities just in time for ‘Back to School’

Nineteen schools nationwide make highest five-star rating; Other schools taking positive steps to 'come out' for their LGBT students

(Charlotte, NC) – As thousands of students return to their college or university campus and as many step onto campus as a new student for the first time this fall semester, they now have one complete and comprehensive national resource ranking for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) inclusion and friendliness.

The Campus Pride LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index lists over 230 publicly available campus climate reports online at www.campusclimateindex.org. The nationally praised Index takes an in-depth look at LGBT-friendly policies, programs and practices. Colleges are ranked from one to five stars, depending on their answers to a detailed, voluntary questionnaire submitted to Campus Pride, a national non-profit working to create safer, more LGBT-inclusive colleges and build future LGBT and ally leaders. In development since 2001, the Index has become a staple in student and faculty research, campus organizing efforts and benchmarking for LGBT student safety and inclusion on campus.

Each summer, university officials are encouraged to fill out new questionnaires and update their Index profiles. This year, the Campus Climate Index is proud to announce five-star rankings for 19 colleges and universities – the most ever achieving the Index’s highest ranking since the its inception in 2007-08.

Campus Pride's 2010 Summer Leadership Camp (which was fabulously phenomenal, by the way) got some great shout outs from Nashville's Out and About Newspaper and 365Gay.com columnist John Corvino. We thought we'd share...

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Campus Pride fires up Vanderbilt attendees
National group hold summer leadership camp in Nashville
by Joe Morris, Out and About Newspaper, Aug. 1, 2010

In an effort to get into areas of the country where GLBT students face more issues, the Campus Pride organization held its summer leadership camp at

Vanderbilt University in late July.

Campus Pride works with student leaders and campus groups to create a safer college environment for GLBT students. Its nationwide volunteer network helps to develop resources, programs and services on campuses across the country, and its summer leadership camp plays a major role in that effort, says Shane Windmeyer, one the group’s cofounders and its executive director. Read the rest at O&AN...

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Corvino: What I learned at gay leadership camp
By John Corvino, 365gay.com, July 30, 2010

"Remind me, dear,” I said to my partner Mark on the way to the airport, “what I am absolutely, positively not doing again next year?”

“You are not doing Camp next year,” he dutifully replied.

We had repeated this dialogue many times in the weeks leading up to Campus Pride’s annual Leadership Camp, a week of intense workshops and other activities for LGBTQ and allied college students, which was held this year at Vanderbilt University July 20-25. Read the rest at 365gay.com...

A scrapbook of photos from this year's Campus Pride Summer Leadership Camp at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.

Learn more about Campus Pride's annual Summer Leadership Camp: www.campuspride.org/camp.asp

More Camp 2010 coverage:
A post card from Camp, July 23
Tuesday at Queer Camp, July 21
Campus Pride Summer Leadership Camp Kicks Off at Vanderbilt University, July 21
Epic Road Trip and Campus Pride Orientation, July 20
Pack your bags! We're heading to Camp!, July 19

Photos: See more photos from Camp 2010 at Facebook! And, be sure to friend us and "Like" us!