The 2023 Best of the Best LGBTQ-Friendly Campus list, created by Campus Pride, was released in August—but this year’s list marked a significant change in rankings. The University of North Florida, the University of Central Florida, Texas Tech University, and the University of Texas at Dallas were excluded, despite three of the four making the 2022 list with five out of five stars.
Campus Pride is a nonprofit dedicated to developing LGBTQ+ resources on college campuses nationwide. The organization’s annual Best of the Best list is created using the Campus Pride Index, which measures areas like LGBTQ+ policy inclusion, academic life, campus safety, and retention and recruitment efforts. This year, Campus Pride decided to exclude all Florida and Texas universities from the Best of the Best list, regardless of their index rating. The decision was made in light of new laws that prohibit colleges and universities from operating LGBTQ+-inclusive programs as well as other diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) measures. Campus Pride specifically cites Florida’s Senate Bill (S.B.) 266 and Texas’s S.B. 17., stating that “recently passed anti-LGBTQ laws put students in danger.”
Florida’s S.B. 266 was passed in early May of this year and took effect on July 1. The bill prohibits universities from using state funding for DEI programs or political or social activism. “The whole experiment with DEI is coming to an end in the state of Florida,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says. “We are eliminating the DEI programs; we’re gonna treat people as individuals; we’re not gonna treat people as members of groups.”
Texas’s S.B. 17 is also an anti-DEI law and will come into effect in January 2024. The bill was one of many passed during Texas’s 88 legislative session that will impact higher education. This includes a bill signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott that bans transgender college athletes from competing in sports that align with their gender identity.
“Campus Pride stands by every campus being negatively impacted by anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the states of Florida and Texas. Higher education must instill values of diversity and inclusion in order to create a quality, productive workforce. The classroom must be safe and create an academic learning environment,” says Shane Mendez Windmeyer, Campus Pride founder, CEO, and executive director. “These laws are being weaponized against LGBTQ+ people, needlessly endangering the safety and well-being of students on campuses across the states of Florida and Texas. Already we are hearing from prospective students and families that they are choosing colleges elsewhere.”
