My first blog for Campus Pride focused on the aftermath of an alleged anti-gay incident at Emory University that made the national news.  In that blog, I opined  that leaders at Emory and on other campuses across the country should try to figure out ways to have something positive come from an unfortunate event on campus.

After receiving feedback about the article, I thought that a follow-up “post” might be helpful to outline some ideas  about what campus leaders could do on campus to help decrease (or, ideally, eliminate) anti-LGBT harassment and bullying on campus.  As an aside, some feedback noted that I had omitted the “Q” in LGBT-Q in my first blog.  True, I did omit the “Q,” representing those on campus (and everywhere) who may be questioning their own sexual orientation or identify as queer.  For this and future blogs, I will add the “Q.”  My apologies to those who fall into the “Q” segment within the LGBTQ world (which I suspect may have included many of us at some point in our lives).

I noted previously that anti-gay animus is hard to detect, as only the actor who takes action against an LGBTQ individual or group truly knows whether his/her action was based on anti-gay feelings or beliefs.  But, for a moment, let’s put aside that issue since the determination of animus is “post-action”  and, instead, we should focus attention on what campus leaders can do “pre-action,” i.e., to prevent the occurrence of negative events on campus.  More campus energy should be spent on preventing harassment and bullying, rather than attempting to determine (post-action) why it occurred.  Newly introduced federal legislation, if passed, may require such energy.

In thinking about preventive action, I offer the following three ideas after the jump...

1. Talk and Debate:  Talking about LGBTQ issues on campus is fundamental to raising awareness, whether pre- or post-action.  Campus leaders should find creative ways to include LGBTQ issues in all discussions, in and out of classes.  Topics facing the LGBTQ community range from civil rights issues to financial and tax matters.  So, there are many opportunities to raise a variety of issues that would trigger positive or critical debate on campus.  Campus leaders (students, faculty and staff) should find ways to foster that debate—without waiting for the campus LGBTQ organizations or community to raise issues or hold events.  Terrific examples of this type of creative communication are the series of “It Gets Better” videos filmed by progressive college and university presidents. See some great examples from the University of Pennsylvania and Antioch University in Los Angeles.  All college and university presidents across the nation should consider creating these types of videos, both as a symbolic gesture and as a way to frame the discussion at their institutions.

1. Organize and Form:  The Human Rights Campaign (www.hrc.org) lists 956 LGBTQ groups on campuses across the nation.  This is an amazing statistic.  HRC also provides a resource for campus leaders to add information about their campus group to the HRC public database (http://www.hrc.org/issues/6241.htm).  The Carnegie Foundation’s database (by “basic category” criteria) includes over 4,300 institutions in the United States.  Thus, while having 956 LGBTQ campus groups is amazing, there is still work to be done to reach all campuses in need of such a group.  For those institutions that do not yet have an LGBTQ campus group, faculty, staff and student leaders should work to organize and form one, and then register it via the HRC website.  Even if a group has only a few founders, it will go a long way to raise awareness in the community.  Once formed, groups should reach out for additional resources, like those provided by Campus Pride, which offers “Stop the Hate” trainings across the nation, as well as a unique national student leadership summer camp each year.

1. Commit and Sign:  In 2006, a group of university leaders resolved to reduce campus carbon footprints (to zero, ideally).  This voluntary initiative was pioneered to not only bring awareness to a growing environmental problem, but also to commit to concrete action steps to improve campus environments and the climate across the country.  The process brought together interested parties from numerous institutions and nonprofit groups and invited other institutions to join the initiative.  In 2007, the group held the first annual Climate Leadership Summit.  In thinking about this process, why couldn’t a group of like-minded university presidents resolve to sign a written commitment to take the actions necessary to decrease the “LGBTQ bullying/harassment” footprint on campus (ideally to zero)?  Signing a campus climate commitment was a powerful act and more than symbolic; campus leaders acknowledged that (1) there was a carbon problem and (2) agreed to fix that problem.  Given that LGBTQ civil rights are unclear at best at the federal level and recent news from several campuses (e.g., Rutgers, Michigan, Emory) suggests that anti-gay harassment and bullying exists, why not mirror a similar process, hopefully leading to greater awareness and action?  Which campus will lead the effort to draft the first LGBTQ Safe Campus Commitment with a goal to reduce anti-LGBTQ action on campus to zero and hopefully lead to a national LGBTQ Anti-Bullying Summit?

[Ed. Note – Campus Pride’s landmark 2010 State of Higher Education, released in September, also outlines several policy and practice initiatives suggested for increasing LGBTQ awareness and inclusion on college and university campuses. Learn more about that report at www.campuspride.org/research.]