Human Rights Campaign HBCU LGBT Summit Fosters New Leaders - Higher Education

Human Rights Campaign HBCU LGBT Summit Fosters New Leaders - Higher Education: Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students face unique challenges on college and university campuses today, including race, identity, religion and social acceptance. To promote more understanding about these issues, particularly at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, 30 LGBT student leaders from 14 states and 22 institutions traveled to Washington, D.C., last weekend to participate in the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation’s HBCU Leadership and Career Summit.

The annual summit, now in its 10th year, was created to educate and organize students, faculty and administrators at HBCU campuses on LGBT issues specific to each institution’s needs. It also ignites campus-wide on LGBT issues and is part of a yearlong effort to train LGBT students to become effective leaders and to spark advocacy on campus.

“HRCF’s HBCU Summit is an effort to help LGBT youth of color overcome the unique obstacles they face on their campuses in the fight for equality,” said Sultan Shakir, director of the HRC Youth and Campus Engagement Program, prior to the summit.