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See The 139 Worst Colleges For LGBT Students—Did Your School Make The List?

More than half of the schools on Campus Pride's Shame List have received exemptions to discriminate against LGBT students while still receiving federal funds.

Choosing a school can be daunting for anyone. For LGBT students, it comes with a host of additional concerns: Is the campus gay-friendly? Is there a significant queer social scene? Do the fraternities and sororities accept trans pledges?

Several organizations rate the most LGBT-friendly campuses, but Campus Pride also publishes an annual Shame List, which gives prospective students details on colleges that have "chosen to openly discriminate against LGBTQ youth."

This year, the organization labeled 139 campuses “not safe” for LGBT students—70 of them received an exemption to Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972—which bars discrimination in education based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity—while still receiving federal funds. (That number is up from last year, when just 58 schools received exemptions.)

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An interactive map on the Campus Pride site allows visitors to search for schools by state, and provides details about why a given college made the list. Campus Pride director Shane Windmeyer says he wants young people and their families to have "all the information to make the best decision... where they will be safe and feel welcomed.”

All the campuses on the list are religiously affiliated, from Appalachian Bible College in Mount Hope, West Virginia, to Yeshiva University in New York City. Brigham Young University campuses in both Utah and Idaho are among the largest colleges on the Shame List, along with Liberty University, founded by noted homophobe Jerry Falwell.

"Schools on this list must do a lot better, developing faith leaders of tomorrow,” says Donald Scherschligt, a recent graduate from Shame List-maker Westmont College who now works for Campus Pride. “The Shame List plays a vital role not only in helping youth make choices on where to go to school, but also in calling out, and holding the campus officials accountable, for the religion-based bigotry and harm where it begins—on these ‘absolute worst’ campuses.”

For Campus Pride's 2017 list of the 25 most LGBT-friendly colleges and universities, click here.

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