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A Patchwork of Protections

Access to financial aid presents some unique challenges for America’s LGBT youth at colleges and universities, even if landmark legislation is passed.

By Vincent Villano
December 4, 2009

Yale Law school students stand in silent protest wearing gags and suits in New Haven, Conn., against the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. (AP Photo/Douglas Healey)

Amid the battle to ensure marriage equality, it seems as though public policy affecting the LGBT community has left behind a large and important swath of the gay community: LGBT college students.

And yet these same young people, who are frequently so ambitious when tackling fights concerning their sexuality, often hardly consider their very basic needs as everyday university students. Unfortunately, federal higher education legislation ignores LGBT struggles with affording higher education.

While data focused on LGBT students remain unclear (data on sexual orientation and gender identity is not gathered in most research about college completion), considering America’s skyrocketing tuition costs, clearly any extra financial support for students is helpful. Nevertheless, current pending higher education bill, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), which currently remains on the back burner in favor of health care reform, would do little to address the higher education concerns of gay and lesbian students, faculty, and staff even with its immediate passage.

SAFRA is far from a terrible piece of legislation. In fact, the bill, which awaits introduction and debate in the Senate, would be the single largest investment in higher education since the GI Bill passed over five decades ago. It makes common sense reforms by expanding programs that work—like the federal Pell Grant—and redirecting spending from student loan companies to existing programs that do the same thing, but more cheaply and efficiently. [Note: For more information on the SAFRA legislation, see our related article.] Yet, even if SAFRA is enacted, there will be much work to do to protect the interests of LGBT students.

Transgender students can lose financial aid if their gender is not consistent with the reported gender in their financial aid forms, and other campus documents—a problem for students who haven’t gone through (or don’t want to) go through the required proceedings to legally change their gender. Shane Windmeyer, executive director of Campus Pride, is working alongside other LGBT groups to change the Common Application, which standardizes first-year college application forms for nearly 400 institutions, to make it more inclusive for transgender and gender non-conforming students. Campus Pride is encouraging a change that allows applicants to self-identify their gender in an inclusive manner.

Further complicating this picture, although some campuses will extend domestic partnership benefits for same-sex couples, without federal protections, public institutions can be strong-armed into reversing inclusive policies—something that Alabama State RepresentativeDuWayne Bridges is already attempting to do to the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Domestic partnership benefits begin there on January 1, 2010; but for how long will LGBT couples enjoy them?

As the debate around the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) continues, it shouldn’t be a surprise that LGBT Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) initiates are facing problems.

ROTC students and students at service academies like West Point are a critical part of the military, and many of them are reliant on their service to finance higher education. But they’re also all bound by the DADT regulations. For gay and lesbian ROTC students, anyone seen compromising the policy (on or off campus) is at risk of dismissal. More troubling is that victims of the DADT policy are often forced to repay their scholarship awards, which can total thousands of dollars.

Lawrence Korb, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, says this practice should have ended in 1990, when John M. Deutch, an advisor on the Defense Board, wrote a letter to then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney about how campus nondiscrimination policies conflict with DADT. Deutch’s recommendation allowed local ROTC units to decide whether a gay ROTC student should repay their scholarship award. It’s since been rescinded for gay or lesbian ROTC members who were outed by a third party. But it still applies—and is selectively enforced—to those who voluntarily disclose their sexual orientation.

Sadly, as is all too often the case, LGBT students encounter some of their toughest opponents within their own families. A 2007 National Gay and Lesbian Task Force report showed that 26 percent of gay teens were kicked out of their homes after coming out to their parents. Applying for financial aid under the “independent” category comes with higher ceilings on federal grants and loans. Alas, to get aid as an independent, applicants are required to provide extensive documentation, including their parents’ tax returns, a nearly impossible task for students estranged from their families. To help these abandoned youths, colleges can open up the “independent” status in the financial aid application.

If a school doesn't have an option for LGBT youth to apply for "independent" status, they can petition for emancipation from their parents. However, the cost of legal fees and the length of processing a petition are as long and arduous as the college admissions and financial aid process itself. Some schools, like Harvard, have made it easier for students to file independently, but this practice is still far from common.

While the country is preoccupied with the debate over same-sex marriage, LGBT college students are struggling in ways that aren't obvious to the LGBT or college affordability community. Higher education is still the greatest form of economic mobility, but for many LGBT youth, there are barriers to the affordability of college.

Vincent Villano is an events associate at Campus Progress.

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