Portland State named one of America’s Top 25 most LGBTQ-friendly colleges

A national nonprofit working to make college campuses safer for LGBT students has ranked Portland State University among the top 25 LGBTQ-friendly colleges and universities in the U.S.

Campus Pride, a nonprofit seeking to make campuses safer for LGBT students, recently named PSU as one of the Top 25 campuses in its 2017 Best of the Best rankings that highlight friendly and inclusive places for LGBTQ students. Portland State made the Top 25 list six out of the seven years for advancing LGBTQ inclusion in policies, programs and practices. 

“These are the campuses leading the way for LGBTQ inclusion and who have come out to support LGBTQ students from the first day of classes through graduation day," said Shane Windmeyer, executive director of Campus Pride and creator of the Campus Pride Index.

Craig Leets, director of PSU’s Queer Resource Center, said Portland State works hard to foster an environment where students of all genders and sexualities can learn, grow and thrive. Each year, PSU students make about 8,000 visits to the university’s Queer Resource Center, which provides students of sexual and gender orientations with the support they need during their college career.

“Creating a welcoming environment for all queer and trans students is a cooperative effort across the entire campus,” Leets said. “Being named a top LGBTQ-friendly school by Campus Pride list affirms that PSU is one of the best universities in the country for queer and trans students.”

This year’s top 25 tier list was created based on overall ratings on the Campus Pride Index and specific LGBTQ-inclusive measures. To make this year’s Top 25 listing -- which groups the top 25 institutions together and lists them in alphabetical order --  colleges and universities had to score the highest percentages in the LGBTQ-friendly benchmarks for factors such as academics, student life, campus safety and health offerings on campus.

See the Campus Pride news release and the full list of campuses here.

Contact Kurt Bedell at kbedell@pdx.edu