Part of the “Establishment”? Fostering Positive Campus Climates for Student Activists

College Students, Sexualities Identities, and Participation in Political Marches

“…People who indicated that they were majoring in Anthropology, Economics, Geography, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology were grouped into the Social Sciences (social science = 1, other = 0) and American Studies, Creative Writing, English/ Literature, Foreign Language, History, Philosophy, and Women's Studies were grouped into the Humanities (humanities = 1, other = 0). This classification scheme copies the literature that suggests that these types of majors inspire less homophobia and more activism than degrees in business, the natural sciences, and education (Broadhurst and Martin 2014;Goldstein and Davis 2010).…”

“…With gay and lesbian college students often joining more political groups than their heterosexual peers (Swank et al 2013a), we recorded if a student had been involved with a Bpolitical club or organization^in the last 12 months (yes = 1, no = 0). This measure did not identify the political goals of the group so we do not know the group existed for LGB issues or not, but we do know that students are more likely to join marches and rallies if they belong to political groups (Broadhurst and Martin 2014;Johnson and Lollar 2002).…”

“…The filtering into certain academic majors and college classes can also contribute to less protest actions of heterosexuals (Astin 1993;Broadhurst and Martin 2014). In choosing college majors and classes, heterosexual students might try to avoid content and assignments that problematize heterosexual privilege.…”

“…Participation in student political groups also generally increases protest participation (Broadhurst and Martin 2014;Johnson 2014) but involvement in LGB organizations may have greater consequences for heterosexuals (Goldstein and Davis 2010) and sexual minorities (Swank and Fahs 2011) than for other groups. Though joining a gay athletic club or a gay-friendly church often leads to greater activism among sexual minorities (Duncan 1999;Paceley et al 2014), several studies indicate that membership in gay and lesbian community centers are the best predictors of LGB activism (Lombardi 1999;Waldner 2001).…”

“…While many students often engage in the conventional and institutionalized actions of voting or making political donations during election seasons, they sometimes turn to the more contentions and radical forms of collective protests when they are confronting institutionalized forms of racism, sexism, and heteronormativity (Astin 1993;Broadhurst and Martin 2014). Accordingly, college students often provide a sizable segment of the largest social movements of the last century (i.e., women's liberation, civil rights movement, and LGBT rights).…”