When Dr. Raymond E. Crossman, president of Adler University, first helped to launch LGBTQ Presidents in Higher Education back in 2010, it began with only a dozen or so members.
Today, as the organization plans to hold its third annual leadership institute in Seattle, Washington, from June 23 to 25, the organization boasts a membership of more than 80 leaders from campuses throughout the United States.
Crossman says the growth of the organization comes at a time of greater societal acceptance and recognition of the LGBTQ community as a whole.
“I think that is one of the largest shifts that we’ve seen in modern history, the changing of attitudes around LGBTQ people,” says Crossman, who is co-chair of the organization.
Indeed, in 2010, 48 percent of adults in the United States opposed gay marriage and 42 percent favored it. As of 2016 — the year after the 2015 Supreme Court decision that required states to allow and recognize same-sex marriages — those numbers shifted to 55 and 37 percent, respectively, according to the Pew Research Center.
“Those numbers have swung fast and hard,” Crossman says. “So there have been great gains in the past few years.”
The shift in public attitude is part of the larger context in which LGBTQ Presidents in Higher Education continues its efforts to empower LGBTQ individuals in academe to navigate their way toward leadership positions and, ultimately, to presidencies at institutions of higher education.
