Campus Pride praises the University of California Academic Senate annd Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools for their recommendation to allow incoming students to identify their sexual orientation and gender identity. (Read more via University of California's The Daily Bruin and CBS Los Angeles.)

The questions, which are planned to be optional, will allow university administrators and staff to more adequately prepare for and serve the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students on their campus.

"Colleges and universities are responsible for the education and safety of their LGBT students -- a school cannot provide necessary services or maintain proper safety and campus climate without first knowing who are the out LGBT students attending their school," said Shane Windmeyer, executive director of Campus Pride. "Demographic questions asking students about their sexual orientation and gender identity will give university administrators the data they need to properly implement LGBT-inclusive policies and practices. Institutions should be held responsible for student safety, retention and academic success of every student -- the addition of identity questions finally make this possible for LGBT students."

Illinois' Elmhurst University is the only college or university in the U.S. to add similar questions to their undergraduate admissions application. The question was first asked last year in Fall 2011. Five percent of applicants voluntarily identified themselves as LGBT in the first semester of applications.

The LGBT demographic questions will appear on the University of California's Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) forms. The question was also recently approved to appear on forms within California's Cal State and community college systems. A dozen other colleges have inquired with Campus Pride about the addition of such a question and a number colleges in addition to the University of California system have also been reported as considering the question such as Duke University, Yale School of Law and Harvard University.

Campus Pride encourages University of California Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs Lawrence H. Pitts to provide final approval for the addition of the question for the safety, responsibility and academic success of every student.

Campus Pride in attendance as Lady Gaga and Oprah launch national foundation to foster a more accepting society, where differences are embraced and individuality is celebrated.

Today, Lady Gaga and Oprah will launch Gaga's new Born This Way Foundation at a special event at Harvard University. Campus Pride Executive Director Shane Windmeyer and two LGBT student leaders from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, including 2011 Voice & Action National Leadership Award recipient Samuel Brinton, will be among those present for the event!

Led by Lady Gaga and her mother Cynthia Germanotta, the Born This Way Foundation was founded in 2011 to foster a more accepting society, where differences are embraced and individuality is celebrated. The Foundation is dedicated to creating a safe community that helps connect young people with the skills and opportunities they need to build a braver, kinder world. Born This Way believes that everyone has the right to feel safe, to be empowered and to make a difference in the world. Together, we will move towards acceptance, bravery and love.

You can tune into a live online stream of the event at 4 p.m. at http://bornthiswayfoundation.org/live-stream
 

“Current federal policy of excluding known lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals from admission to ROTC or of discharging them from service is inconsistent with Harvard’s values as stated in its policy on discrimination.”

Harvard’s official policy regarding the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program states that the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) doctrine of excluding openly LGBT servicemen conflicts with the university’s discrimination policy, forcing Harvard to prohibit ROTC from active participation on campus. Last year, the Harvard Republican Club sponsored a campus-wide survey in which 62% of the student body supported reversing the ROTC policy; the survey sparked massive protest within the QSA, many of whom claimed that ROTC programs were not only non-inclusive of the openly queer, but detrimental to queer rights movements on campus. However, exiling ROTC from the Harvard campus is more punitive and deleterious to the queer community than the DADT policy, denying queer and queer-friendly students a critical on-campus scholarship and career program.