While sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Denver, just having passed the halfway mark on our journey across the country, I began wondering if there was a better way for us to be helping the  College and University LGBTQIA Centers that we had been to. I put pen to paper, and this self-evaluation inventory emerged.

We hope these seventeen questions prove helpful to you and your school’s Center or Group. We would love to hear your feedback about how it has worked for you. Please feel free to contact us with any questions about this inventory, or if you would like us to come to your school to assist in facilitating an inventory.

Please feel free to download to use at your school:

LGBTQAI_Higher_Ed_Center_Inventory_OTDC

For weeks before hitting the road with Out of the Dorm Closet, I pictured what that first day setting out would look like. I would wake up filled with joy and excitement; our truck would be packed and organized; my hair would be perfectly coiffed; I would sit in my favorite nook in the woods and record my first video blog as a farewell to our home and welcoming to the journey ahead.

The day we departed did not resemble that daydream in any way. I had a few hours of sleep after packing into the wee hours of the morning. Disheveled and half awake, I alternated between running out in the rain to shove our belongings into the truck with throwing up and crying. I fluctuated between pushing myself to start this journey and breaking down in fear over leaving behind what had been our home. Once my stomach settled and I stopped crying enough to drive, it finally felt like it was now or never. I started the ignition.

The reason I am mentioning the first day of our journey is that it taught me a valuable lesson, although it took a while for this lesson to sink in. For much of the journey, I had expectations of what the trip was supposed to look like. We would visit hundreds of schools; our sponsors would all throw money at us; we would change the world one mile at a time. In reality, most of the schools were closed already for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Schools that were open never responded to our efforts to meet with them. Those we did see, caused us to question if what we were doing was really making a difference, and we didn’t hear back from the potential sponsors.

It was through this roller coaster of emotions and many miles on the road that inspiration struck. I was sitting in a hotel lobby in Denver (prior to altitude sickness), sipping coffee, determined to write about the schools we had been able to visit. In this moment, it occurred to me that our experience as consultants could be used in a better way. I started writing out a step-by-step pamphlet that schools might use to evaluate their LGBTQ centers for themselves. If they want to grow as a center they can, and they could do that without needing us to be there. Simply reporting what schools are currently doing is something that exists already. It also doesn’t address all of the issues we came across.

Our hope is that this resource will prove helpful to schools and LGBTQ youth around the globe. At the very least, creating it will give us a chance to make a difference and remind us that life doesn’t always look like we think it should.

 As a wise mentor of mine once said, if I spend all my time looking for something that is the color blue, I might miss the pink one that is right in front of me.

A colleague of mine who is a college sociology professor and LGBTQ advocate recently gave her students a midterm evaluation to check how they were feeling about the class. A few students stated that they hoped she would “not talk about LGBTQ propaganda so much.” 

When students immersed in an environment designed to promote open-minded critical thinking see a discussion of LGBTQ equality as “propaganda,” or as Merriam-Webster defines it, “ideas or statements that are often false or exaggerated and that are spread in order to help a cause, a political leader, a government, etc.”, what can we do to change this response?

The Association of American Colleges & Universities describes a Liberal Arts Education as “an approach to learning that empowers individuals and prepares them to deal with complexity, diversity, and change. It provides students with broad knowledge of the wider world (e.g., science, culture, and society) as well as in-depth study in a specific area of interest. A liberal education helps students develop a sense of social responsibility, as well as strong and transferable intellectual and practical skills such as communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills, and a demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and skills in real-world settings.”

The mission of Out of the Dorm Closet is to shed light on what is going right in the world of higher education for LGBTQ students, staff, and faculty. In doing this, we will also uncover some of the darkness. Sometimes we will be pointing out ideas and practices that perhaps no longer serve us as a society. Our hope is that we might open minds to think about whether it’s time to let go of these old ways of thinking and replace them with new ones.

As we travel the country visiting colleges and universities, we are conducting a fact-finding and fact-facing inventory. An inventory requires a deep unveiling of all aspects of a business. Nora experienced an example of this when managing a bookstore years ago: “I discovered during an inventory that we had a few amazing books that we loved, but they hadn’t sold in years. They were covered in dust and the pages had faded. We saw that if we let go of these items, we could replace them with newer, more relevant books that could improve our store.”

The question we are left with is what can we do differently? How do we discuss new ideas without them being labeled “propaganda?” What steps can both allies and the LGBTQ community take in this direction? We will address these questions through our interviews with students, staff, and faculty. Out of the Dorm Closet would also love to hear from you—your experiences, feedback, ideas, and what you would like us to include on this epic road trip!

Some of you may be wondering when this #epicroadtrip is going to start! Why aren’t we seeing posts from the road yet? Why haven’t we seen your signature rainbow boa on our college mascot yet?

As you may know, we are devoting ourselves full-time to this project. We will be packing all of our belongings into our truck and traveling around the country. To make this happen, we are letting go of numerous belongings, we are tirelessly working on press releases, sponsorship proposals, researching routes to take, developing a social media following, and ensuring that as we launch Out of the Dorm Closet we aren’t just flying by the seat of our pants.

We are inspired by those who have walked similar journeys in the past. For example, Mike Marriner and Nathan Gebhard, founders of Roadtrip Nation.  “Sitting around our college apartment one night after a great evening surf, we were just chillin’, talking about what we were going to do with our lives. We were frustrated,” they describe in their book, Roadtrip Nation: A Guide to Discovering Your Path In LIfe. “It suddenly became clear to us that we needed to get out beyond the borders of campus and California and explore all the options we didn’t even know existed. We needed more information. We needed more experience. We needed to meet more people. We needed to hit the road.”

We are honoring organizations who have paved the way for LGBTQ youth activism, such as the Human Rights Campaign, GLSEN, GLAAD, the GSA Network, and Campus Pride.

Within the next month, we will be sharing this amazing experience with you, and hopefully inspiring others to take hold of their dreams, fight for their rights, and be the change they wish to see in the world.

People have asked, what is Out of the Dorm Closet about. So we thought we should expound upon our mission statement and tell you how it came about. 

We wanted to take a road trip across the country that had a purpose. How could we make a difference in the world while having an epic road trip? How could we make every stop be about creating positive change, rather than just seeing a tourist attraction?

We developed a quest to visit as many schools as possible, in an effort to learn what colleges and universities are offering for their LGBTQ students.

Do they have a Gay Straight Alliance? Do they have an LGBTQ center? How does the school cooperate with their surrounding LGBTQ communities? Is the institution supporting their LGBTQ students and faculty? Do students feel safe enough to come out of the closet? 

We hope that our blog will serve as a resource for prospective students (and their parents) when deciding on a school.

We are also striving to create a resource to assist schools in generating LGBTQ supportive environments by seeing what other colleges and universities are doing.

Harvey Milk serves as a tremendous inspiration for us and this project. We think he summed up our vision when he said, “All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential.”

When I first came out while at Bowdoin in the late ’90s, we had a small Gay-Straight Alliance. To this day, I am incredibly grateful for this group and for the opportunity to serve as the co-chair my senior year. When my partner and I planned a visit to Bowdoin, twenty years later, I knew I had to check out the Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity. 

I immediately imagined how comforting it would have been to have a space like this to go to and know that I was safe to be me. Curling up on the couch to study, participating in their weekly dinner, and just knowing that there were staff members and students who were striving to make my experience better – I didn’t have that, but I am so happy to know that current and future Bowdoin students do. I was impressed to learn how they have worked with the athletic department, held workshops with celebrity athletes who are out, and created ally training for team members. A photo project representing the LGBTQ community hung on the wall of the main room, reminding me of one a fellow classmate had created that never had a home like this one has. 

Most of all I was struck by the full-time staff member, Kate Stern, and her excitement and focus on creating a more LGBTQ-inclusive environment at Bowdoin. Already they are creating gender-neutral bathroom policies and are working diligently with the Deans to move forward in what it means to be LGBTQ at Bowdoin. 
Sitting in the purple chairs, talking to Kate, is now one of the defining moments of my life. This is where Out of The Dorm Closet started to grow in my mind. I knew in that moment that Higher Ed LGBTQ advocacy was something I needed to be a part of. 

We first visited the LGBTQ centers at our Alma Maters out of curiosity. We were excited to see that our former schools now had LGBTQ resources that we didn’t have when we were students. Upon visiting Purdue and Bowdoin we started to wonder what other schools around the country offer. What were colleges and universities doing, or not doing? Were small towns doing more than big cities? How does the east or west coast compare to the Midwest? So we set out on a quest to visit as many Higher Ed schools as possible and see what they offer for their LGBTQ students, their surrounding communities, and how they are spreading awareness to the school as a whole. We hope you will join us on this epic road trip adventure across the country.