The Neglected Minority

Community colleges have taken great pride over many decades as an open-door institution welcoming students who had no other place to go. They have created special programs for students who are under-served, at risk, first generation, Black males, women, migrants, and prisoners. The open door leads to safe houses for these students, but all minority groups have not been welcomed with open arms or perhaps colleges do not know how to deal with The Neglected Minority — LGBTQ students and students experiencing homelessness. The conference programs of AACC, League for Innovation, and NISOD were analyzed in a 2023 study by the author using Google Word count to determine the extent to which the hundreds of sessions in these programs reflected interest in The Neglected Minority.

LGBQT students

There is a growing interest and literature about LGBTQ students. In a survey by the Association of American Universities of 180,000 college students, 17% identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, queer, or questioning. It is not known how many of these students are enrolled in community colleges, but it is likely these students are represented equally to those in universities.

Dr. Terry O'BanionAccording to the Fact Sheet of the Postsecondary National Policy Institute, there were over 250 LGBTQ centers on college campuses in the U. S. in 2022. Only five of the 115 California community colleges have professionally staffed LGBTQ resource centers. All but one University of California campus and nearly half of California State Universities have such centers.

The Trevor Project is the world’s largest suicide prevention and mental health organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning young people. In the project's 2022 survey of 34,000 LGBTQ youth between ages 13-24, the following results answer why it is important for educators to be concerned about these students:

• 45% considered suicide in the past year.

• 14% attempted suicide in the past year.