Campus Pride Names & Shames 180 ‘Absolute Worst & Unsafe Colleges’ for LGBTQ+ Youth

Nonprofit Campus Pride has released the names of 180 US colleges and universities deemed as “the absolute worst, most unsafe campuses for LGBTQ+ youth".

The organisation, which advocates for LGBTQ+ inclusivity and safety at U.S. colleges and universities, added 50 universities to the list since last year. It’s the most extensive update, and the longest list since the list started in 2015, according to the organization. The colleges and universities included in this year’s list have either received or applied for a Title IX religious exemption to openly discriminate against LGBTQ+ youth, or they have a demonstrated history of anti-LGBTQ+ policies, programs and practices.

“This is the most exhaustive update to our annual ‘Worst List’ since 2016, with more than 50 new campuses added this year in part because of the lack of updates in filing procedures since the Trump Administration’s Department of Education told campuses they did not have to apply for Title IX religious exemptions to openly discriminate against LGBTQ people,” stated said Shane Windmeyer, Founder and Executive Director of Campus Pride. “The Biden Administration has yet to clarify this DOE memo or mandate that a campus must apply for Title IX to discriminate based on religious beliefs.”

In March 2021, 33 LGBTQ+ students and alumni from 29 campuses filed a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education demanding that they stop granting religious exemptions to tax-payer-funded religious colleges and universities that discriminate against and abuse their LGBTQ students. In 2019, 41 campuses filed an amicus brief in Bostock v. Clayton County voicing their support for employment discrimination at religious institutions for LGBTQ employees. Ultimately, the US Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case last year determining that discrimination against gay and transgender workers is unlawful and violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Shameful mentions from this year’s 'Worst List' include Baylor University, Malone University, College of the Ozarks and Lee University. Baylor University is included for its past and recent history of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination and because it is one of the campuses named in the class-action lawsuit, Hunter v. the U.S. Department of Education, for abuses to LGBTQ+ students. Malone University qualified for the Worst List after an associate professor was forced to resign after telling the administration that she would be getting married to a woman. In an email sent to the student body, the university shares how the professor was in violation of Malone’s religious beliefs and their Community Agreement for Sexual Conduct, which states “sex should be exclusively reserved for the marriage relationship, understood as a legal, lifelong commitment between a husband and wife.”

College of the Ozarks is shamefully mentioned as one of the worst, most dangerous colleges for LGBTQ+ youth for filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development arguing that the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, “requires private religious colleges to open up female showers, restrooms, and dorm rooms to biological males who assert a female gender identity.”

Lee University is also shamefully mentioned in this year’s Worst List because of a past and recent record of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination and because they specifically argued as a part of a 2019 amicus brief in Bostock v. Clayton County to allow employment discrimination against gay and transgender employees of religious institutions. In September of this year, it removed 'gender identity' from the campus anti-discrimination policy.

“Campus Pride was founded 20 years ago with a vision of campuses and a society free of anti-LGBTQ prejudice, bigotry, and hate,” added Windmeyer. “And while much progress has been made since then, clearly there remains a lot more work to do as we develop and train future leaders to create safer, more inclusive communities on campuses.”

Click here for the full list of the 180 worst, most unsafe campuses for LGBTQ+ youth in the U.S.