{"id":1161,"date":"2017-07-14T12:26:20","date_gmt":"2017-07-14T16:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/?p=1161"},"modified":"2017-07-14T12:26:20","modified_gmt":"2017-07-14T16:26:20","slug":"even-on-welcoming-campuses-lgbt-students-face-hurdles-to-college-completion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2017\/07\/14\/even-on-welcoming-campuses-lgbt-students-face-hurdles-to-college-completion\/","title":{"rendered":"Even on Welcoming Campuses, LGBT Students Face Hurdles to College Completion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Colleges across the US have made major strides in their efforts to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students.<\/p>\n

But a recent New York Times<\/em> op-ed<\/a> published by a University of Mississippi grad provides an important reminder that much work still needs to be done.<\/p>\n

By his own admission, Dylan Lewis \u201cthrived in college.\u201d At the University of Mississippi he finally felt free to be himself. Lewis joined the student government, led campus tours, and felt safe and supported.<\/p>\n

Yet despite a welcoming campus, Lewis\u2014 like many LGBT youth \u2014 faced unique challenges on his path to college completion.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cSupporting myself through school was a huge challenge, as it is for many LGBT students who are estranged from their families,\u201d wrote Lewis, who graduated from college this spring with a journalism degree. \u201c\u2026Many universities, like my own, are safe havens for gay students, but few administrations seem to be aware of how many LGBT students struggle to make ends meet without family support.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a 2017 national survey<\/a> by the Human Rights Commission, a third of LGBT youth ages 13 to 17 say their family is not accepting of LGBT people.<\/p>\n

In his column, Lewis shared how a strained relationship with his mother affected his college experience.<\/p>\n

Here are a two of the major hurdles he faced:<\/p>\n

Applying for financial aid:<\/strong> \u201cUndergraduates must apply for federal aid using their parents\u2019 tax and income information, but LGBT students who are alienated from their families can\u2019t always get that information,\u201d Lewis wrote. \u201cThe process to verify that I was independent required that I provide concrete evidence of a significantly \u2018broken relationship\u2019 with my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obtaining health care: <\/strong>\u201cMy mother had taken me off her health insurance. Ole Miss provides free medical care, but it doesn\u2019t cover prescriptions,\u201d Lewis noted. \u201cSo I stopped seeing my psychologist and taking depression medication. I quit going to the eye doctor and the dentist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis is currently teaching at a Houston public school with Teach for America. He hopes to one day create an Ole Miss scholarship for LGBT students facing similar challenges, Lewis told Hotty Toddy<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to give back. Ole Miss has given me so much. I hope that through this article, people can see that even someone like myself who was involved in all these things and did all these things, that I was still so broken inside,\u201d Lewis told the online publication, which covers Ole Miss and the surrounding community. \u201cThere are kids out there going through the same thing, and they just want help, and I want to give that to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full op-ed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Admitted writer\/editor Mary Stegmeir welcomes additional comments and story ideas at\u00a0mstegmeir@nacacnet.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colleges across the US have made major strides in their efforts to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students. But a recent New York Times op-ed published by a University of Mississippi grad provides an important reminder that much work still needs to be done. By his own admission, Dylan Lewis \u201cthrived in college.\u201d At … Continue reading Even on Welcoming Campuses, LGBT Students Face Hurdles to College Completion<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16,111],"tags":[345,346],"class_list":["post-1161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-access","category-advocacy","category-college-completion","tag-lgbt","tag-university-of-mississippi"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Mary Stegmeir","author_link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/author\/mstegmeir\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peWmJq-iJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}