revamp: How to make your student activism better than ever

GLAAD is kicking off Spring with a student-activist-led campaign, revamp, where GLAAD’s Campus Ambassadors share insights on how to make your campus activism more inclusive and effective.

Now more than ever, we need to provide safe and affirming spaces for students. We need to keep working on making schools a place where all people feel free to express and live their identities. Throughout the month, GLAAD will be posting content about the importance of inclusive sex-ed, how teachers can better support trans students, ace inclusion in LGBTQ spaces, building bisexual communities on campus, and more.

To kick off revamp, GLAAD spoke to three college students about their experiences as LGBTQ people, on and off their college campuses. The video, entitled "LGBTQ on and off campus" explores school safety, hate groups taking residence in and around colleges, and harassment off-campus.

Educational spaces, especially colleges, are hubs for activism and identity formation. For many students, college presents the first opportunity to enroll in LGBTQ-specific classes, to access LGBTQ-specific resources, and to step into an LGBTQ resource center. Campus environments often take on the great responsibility of creating community and fostering acceptance for LGBTQ students.

However, there is still much work to do to make college campuses safer for LGBTQ students. The latest campus crime reports show hate crimes rooted in racial bias and queerphobia are on the rise. Of the 1,300 hate crimes reported on college campuses in 2016, 21% were based on sexual orientation or gender identity—a 6 year high. Rates of sexual assault and misconduct on college campuses continue to be some of the highest among people who identify as transgender, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming. Just last month, a bill was introduced to Congress that could enable higher education institutions to discriminate against LGBTQ students.

If you are looking to create or improve your activism, look no further! revamp is here to help you accelerate LGBTQ acceptance in your community.

Adrian Vega is a GLAAD Campus Ambassador and junior at Stanford University studying Communication with a focus on Digital Media. He is currently interning at GLAAD as a Youth Engagement Intern.