By Amanda Fisher, Mary Ellen Ritter, Karri Seland and Victoria Schutz
Note: This story includes a derogatory term that is particularly offensive to LGBTQ+ people. AccessU has left in the term because it describes an incident that is relevant to the story and reflects the lived experience of an LGBTQ+ student when he was an undergraduate.
Fourth-year student Anthony Phelps says he feels like the University of Minnesota is a generally safe place to attend college — “with an asterisk.” That is, nowhere is truly safe for LGBTQ+ people in the United States, he says.
But when asked if the University is a “queer-affirming campus,” Phelps, who identifies as gay and queer, had a different answer: yes, but with multiple asterisks.
Those exceptions, Phelps said, include inaccessible gender-neutral bathrooms, hard-to-find LGBTQ+ mental health services and challenging professors who resist or avoid talking about student pronoun choices. To him, such factors get in the way of building the camaraderie, understanding and acceptance required for a campus to be truly queer-affirming. His ideal queer-affirming campus would allow the LGBTQ+ communities to “feel seen but not objectified.”
Phelps’ views were echoed by other queer students who said the university often falls short of truly serving queer students for several reasons: because its curriculum glances over queer voices, LGBTQ+ resources are not easy to find and administrators remain silent even though trans people are under political assault in legislatures across the country.
“Silence says something,” said Garrik Martin, a transfer student at the University of Minnesota who identifies as gay. “If you’re not out there saying something, then you’re complicit with what’s happening, and that’s just as bad as support because you’re not stopping it.”
As a result, queer students say the university’s support for queer students feels mostly performative — a view that fuels cynicism among some LGBTA+ students about whether they really matter.
“I feel like [the university is] a queer-tolerant space,” said Lucy Gunelson, a queer second-year student studying environmental geoscience. “But there are so limited resources for such a big population, it feels almost like a promotional thing. Like — oh, look! We do have this thing!”
University discrimination reporting and accountability
Tina Marisam, director of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (EOAA) and vice president in the Office of Diversity and Equity, said the university is committed to LGBTQ+ students through its Title IX work.
EOAA offers tools, resources and support for students who have faced discrimination or bias on campus, she continued.
When a student reports discrimination based on identity — including sexual orientation and gender identity — EOAA reviews it. They respond to reports of discriminatory conduct by faculty and transfer reports involving only students to the Office for Community Standards.
Reports could include instances of a professor misgendering a student, making an offensive comment or giving a student a low grade because of their identity. Marisam said each report is handled differently based on the level of misconduct, whether there was malicious intent and depending on a student’s individual needs.
“We really encourage folks to report concerns of bias or identity-based harm, even if they wouldn't rise to the level of a policy violation,” Marisam said.
A policy violation occurs in cases when harmful words or actions based on a student’s sexual or gender identity have an adverse impact on their employment, education or participation in university activities. According to the policy, discrimination includes slurs, offensive comments, intimidation, threats, belittling and stereotyping against a protected identity.
According to a report from EOAA, 400 cases of discrimination, harassment, nepotism, and sexual misconduct were opened in 2021. Of those, eight were related to sexual orientation and 16 were related to gender identity or expression.
Out of 270 cases opened involving employees at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, approximately seven were related to sexual orientation and approximately 14 were related to gender identity or expression.
“We are only able to impose sanctions or disciplinary action against a student or faculty if we go through an investigation process under our policy and make a finding that the discrimination policy was violated,” Marisam said.
Actions include termination or suspension of employment, reduction in pay, probation and disciplinary letters — depending on the severity of the misconduct.
But Marisam said students are still supported in cases that don’t rise to a policy violation.
“There's a lot of harmful conduct that can happen below that threshold that we still want to know about,” she said. “We still have lots of tools to address it, to hold folks accountable and try to address harm with information and education before it escalates, and hopefully so it doesn't happen again. And also to support the student who has been harmed.”
In these cases, Marisam said EOAA works with students to determine strategies. EOAA may have a conversation with the faculty member and provide resources to the student.
Despite the policy work EOAA does, Marisam said showing students how the university cares can be challenging.
“It is very easy to say, we care and this is a value,” she said. “And I tend to believe it is. But there's another step of actually doing the work and putting the resources behind those words.”
Measuring LGBTQ+ inclusivity
The Campus Pride Index, a nationwide measurement tool that ranks universities on LGBTQ-inclusive benchmarks, currently gives the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus a score of 4.5 out of five stars overall. The index scores campuses using eight factors that range from student or academic life, healthcare, housing or policies that allow for gender identification, among other measures.
In 2015, the Twin Cities campus made the Campus Pride’s top 25 list of most LGBTQ-friendly colleges and universities. But the index raised its standards that year, and the University of Minnesota has not made the list since.
Big Ten schools — Ohio State University, University of Illinois, Purdue University, Indiana University and University of Michigan — were all featured with five-star scores on the 2022 “Best of the Best Colleges & Universities for LGBTQ+ students.”
And while two Minnesota schools — Macalester College and Minnesota State University-Mankato — made that list, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities did not.
The index provides an objective assessment, which colleges must choose to opt in to, of institutional support of LGBTQ+ inclusive policies, programs and practices on campus, according to Genny Beemyn, Ph.D., an advisory board member for the Campus Pride Index who uses they/them pronouns and helped create the index.
“College administrators have to fill it out and be able to answer a whole bunch of questions about different aspects of LGBT life experiences on campus looking strictly at policies and practices, so it is very, very concrete. Do you have this policy? Yes or no?” Beemyn said. “It is really designed to be a more objective measure of what life is like on a campus rather than, say, a subjective one which is asking about how people feel there.”
Beemyn described the index as a way for colleges to show their commitment to supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
“It’s been a really good tool for institutions to be able to advertise themselves to students, and it has encouraged institutions to do better because no one wants to be seen as second-rate,” Beemyn said. “They always want to keep up with their peers, so it has really led a lot of institutions to really improve their services and programs for LGBTQ+ students.”
According to the index, the Twin Cities campus holds a five-star rating in five of eight categories: LGBTQ+ support and institutional commitment, academic life, housing, student life, and healthcare. This means the university has met every policy, practice and program within those five categories.
The index rates the University of Minnesota lower, at 4.5 stars out of five, in the policy inclusion category and four stars out of five in the campus safety and recruitment and retention categories.
The Campus Pride Index shows the campus does not give students the option to self-identify their sexual orientation or gender identity on admission applications or post-enrollment forms. Beemyn says this is an important measure of how much a university cares about the identities of its students and the diversity within its student body.
When applications omit questions about gender identity and sexual orientation while including questions about other demographics, such as race or legal sex, the message to queer students is not a welcoming one.
“In a sense, if you’re a trans person, what it says to you is the institution cares about who you are not, rather than who you are in terms of your gender.,” Beemyn said. “They want to know what your documents say or maybe how you were assigned at birth, but they don’t want to know who you are today.”
The index also shows the campus does not have LGBTQ+ inclusive career services or much outreach to LGBTQ+ students and organizations. The university also does not participate annually in LGBTQ+ admissions fairs.
“It is important [to have inclusive career services] so that LGBTQ folks who are going off to look for jobs are aware of some of the unique issues they need to be thinking about,” Beemyn said.
Beemyn also said university participation in LGBTQ+ college admissions fairs shows its commitment to queer students.
“Unfortunately, you can’t assume, at this point, that a college is going to be LGBTQ+-friendly. It is important that they market themselves as so, and it is important to let LGBTQ+ students know about what policies and practices they have in place,” they said.
Beemyn described the index as successful in what it is trying to measure, but they admitted it is not all-encompassing.
“It has its limits in terms of looking at only policies and practices. It doesn’t, for example, get to what the climate is like on campus. So, you know, you can have a lot of great policies but it could still be a difficult place for trans students to be” Beemyn said.
While the index measures the existence of resources and policies on campuses, it does not measure the less tangible aspects of them like quality and visibility.
In a survey conducted by AccessU in March, most queer respondents — a combined 56% — said the University of Minnesota’s resources for LGBTQ+ students were either good or adequate. Only 10% of queer students rated those resources as weak or poor.
But knowing about those resources was another matter. The survey showed 38% of non-queer students were unaware of three major LGBTQ+ resources — the Queer Student Cultural Center (QSCC), the Gender and Sexuality Center (GSC) and the Lavender House — offered on campus.
Mycall Riley, the director of the GSC, said it’s important for these resources to be known to both queer and non-queer students.
“Everyone knows someone who is a member of the different communities the GSC serves, so I think everyone and anyone should know about these spaces,” Riley, who uses all pronouns, said.
Policing as affirming
Third-year student Abbygayle Wright, who uses all pronouns, said that while they haven’t experienced discrimination on campus, the University of Minnesota campus can be lonely for students who don’t pass as straight or cisgender.
“If you don’t [pass], I think it can be very isolating. Because people don’t understand and don’t want to understand. Or it’s like they understand but they don’t really want to engage with students like me,” Wright said. “They’re kind of wary of it.”
Some students have had genuinely unsafe experiences off campus. Mitchell, a graduate of the University of Minnesota who did not want his last name used, said he experienced this during his undergraduate years.
He faced stalking and indecent exposure at the University Recreation and Wellness Center. He said he was also attacked at Blarney’s Pub and Grill in Dinkytown by a man who put him in a headlock and called him a faggot.
“I didn’t report the incidents because I felt like the University wouldn’t care,” Mitchell said. “I would rather talk to my friends, who I know care about me than report it and just be provided with resources that wouldn’t help me.”
But Marisam said having protective policies against discrimination can aid in creating a queer-affirming campus. All reports are addressed, including those submitted anonymously, she said. These reports can cover all transgressions — from harassment in locker rooms to misgendering in the classroom.
“If there is repeated misgendering by a faculty member of a student, we pull in HR and we pull in the department head as well, so there is accountability in the sense that we're addressing it seriously,” Marisam said.
Online reports can be submitted without providing identifying information, Marisam said.
“Sometimes folks don't know if they want to share information with us,” Marisam said. “We're happy to meet with someone and just talk through the process and answer their questions … Sometimes we even do [phone calls] anonymously.”
When a report is anonymous, Marisam said EOAA shares options for confidential resources, such as Student Counseling Services and Boynton Health.
Marisam said that campus climate is an important element of the work at EOAA and the Office of Equity and Diversity.
“What happens when we misgender? What happens when someone makes an insensitive comment? Do bystanders intervene if it happens in a class, does a faculty member say something, or do folks feel alone?” she asked. “That kind of campus climate element is really important. And policies inform that.”
Marisam cited research from the Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology and LGBT Health which suggested that students can benefit from strong policies specifically addressing the harms queer students face.
“Knowing that the university has your back in that way, and if something should happen, there's resources and that the university cares — on that end, we are absolutely a leader,” Marisam said.
In 2015, the University of Minnesota enacted a technology upgrade that allowed students to register their preferred names across all systems, including class rosters and university ID cards. Prior to this, students were able to edit their preferred name in OneStop, but their legal name was still seen by faculty.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison enacted the same policy two years earlier. The first university to adopt a policy for students to change their pronouns and preferred name was the University of Vermont in 2009.
A more comprehensive policy at the University of Minnesota was adopted in January 2019, and it includes specification and usage of preferred names, pronouns and gender identity outside of documents where they are legally required. It also ensures the privacy of the legal name, pronouns and sex of faculty and students within university records.
According to EOAA, the policy was designed to “make explicit the University commitment to non-discriminatory programs, activities and facilities” and “help promote a respectful University community free from discrimination based on gender identity or expression.”
When asked in the AccessU survey in March if UMN’s policies adequately reflect the needs of LGBTQ+ students, only about 37% of queer survey respondents said yes.
Housing options exist, but challenges remain
Many universities have also implemented gender-inclusive housing to create queer-affirming spaces for LGBTQ+ students.
The University of Minnesota opened the Lavender House, a Living Learning Community for LGBTQ+ students, in 2007. The community is located in Comstock Hall, which also has single rooms available in limited quantities for queer students.
These efforts are a part of Gender Open Housing, which is a Twin Cities campus initiative that allows students to room with someone who has a different gender identity than them. Gender Open Housing is available in 10 of the dorm buildings and university-owned apartment buildings.
"I personally haven’t heard negative things [about housing],” said Carmen Castello, a third-year student who identifies as bisexual or pansexual. “I have a friend in Lavender House in Comstock, and they really like it. They appreciate it."
Despite this, first-year student Bea Lohman said they encountered problems when applying for a dorm outside of Gender Open Housing as a non-binary student.
Lohman wanted to be placed in a single dorm in the Lavender House, but they accidentally selected a double room on their application. When they were unable to change to a single room, they decided to live in a four-person apartment with friends in Yudof Hall.
Although Gender Open Housing is available in Yudof, only two-person apartments are included in the program. Lohman’s cisgender roommate was able to select the four-person dorm on the housing website; Lohman and their two non-binary roommates were unable to.
Lohman said the housing office was not candid or transparent about what was preventing them from selecting the room they wanted.
After days of waiting for a response from the Office of Housing and Residential Life, they were incorrectly told the issue had been fixed. When they called the housing office again, they got no response. When they went to the housing office they were told the phones were not working.
Their phone call went through after an hour of trying, Lohman said, and they received an answer to their question.
“We found out that it was because the housing system doesn't know how to accommodate nonbinary students that wish to be housed anywhere but open gender housing,” they said. “We were kind of shocked by that.”
Housing staff was able to fix the issue by working around the website’s system, they said. Staff did this by changing their listed gender to a binary gender and changing it back once they were sorted into the correct housing.
“I think it would have been a lot better to just be transparent.” Lohman said. “I would have had a lot more respect for the housing system if they had just been straightforward and been like, hey, our housing system is currently unable to process nonbinary students the same way it can for cisgender or binary transgender students. So, here's what you need to do,” they said.
Both the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin-Madison say their LLCs focus on bringing queer students together in a space that is safe and non-conforming, according to their websites. The University of Wisconsin-Madison opened an LGBTQ+ LLC, the Open House Learning Community, in 2013.
Across five of its housing locations, the University of Wisconsin-Madison offers gender-inclusive housing with options for single, double and triple rooms and either private or shared all-gender bathrooms. Students who identify as non-binary are able to live in any building and do not have to be part of gender-open housing.
By contrast, the University of Minnesota only offers single rooms for Gender Open spaces in three of its 13 residence halls and apartments. And the University of Minnesota’s system limits the options for nonbinary students to the short list of open gender housing units.
Is the U doing all it can?
Marisam said she works with those in her field at other Big Ten institutions. “I'm always asking, ‘What else are you doing, what strategies are you finding effective?’” she said.
Student feedback is also important to EOAA, Marisam said.
“We are interested in feedback from students if they think there are other strategies that could be effective or other tweaks to the training or other types of training that we could bring to make things better that would be helpful for EOAA.”
Gunelson said student groups are doing work that the university should be prioritizing. Without students taking initiative, Gunelson believes there would be fewer resources and safe spaces.
“If I actually see the university try to take steps to change that, then I will have hope. But right now, it’s kind of like the students doing the work and the university is kind of just taking the praise for it.”
The Queer Student Cultural Center, for example, is home to 10 LGBTQ+ student groups that discuss queer identities and their intersections with other identities offered at the University of Minnesota. There are also pride student groups with an intersectional focus. Spectrum, for instance, aims to empower the intersectionalities of community members who identify as Asian/Pacific Islander/Desi - Americans (APIDA) and LGBTQ+.
Kyre Johnson, a second-year student who identifies as queer, reflected on a time when students made insensitive comments about her appearance to demonstrate what she wants to see improve on campus.
“During the homecoming parade, there is usually a pride group that comes through, and they usually hand out little pride flags and buttons and stuff. My friends and I got into the elevator, and we were holding our pride flags, and some of the other people in the elevator were making comments like, ‘Oh, I don’t think they know what those mean. They’re definitely not gay,’” Johnson said.
“I don’t know how to explain it better, but sometimes I’ll present very normal, straight, feminine, and other times, I am kind of presenting in the opposite direction, so it just kind of depends on how people are seeing me, and that will determine how I get treated,” she said.
Johnson said her ideal queer-affirming environment would be one of mutual respect and understanding, and she wants to see the University of Minnesota follow through in its commitment to diversity by creating an environment that stands out from ones she has experienced before.
“I just want to see something that is different from where I grew up. I know it’s not going to be the same for everybody, but I grew up in a really small farming town, so for me, coming here was a lot about being able to see diversity and to experience things I hadn’t before and to be able to grow,” Johnson said. “It’s important to have the university and have my peers accept the fact that the university is diverse to be respectful of that.”