The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 46, No. 3 - 84

Allison BrckaLorenz, Kyle T. Fassett, Sarah S. Hurtado

the same (98%, n = 4,239; χ2 = 30.0, p < .001).
Disproportionately, straight students without
disabilities felt comfortable being themselves
at their institutions (97%, n = 4,207) compared to LGBQ+ students without disabilities
(89%, n = 475) and LGBQ+ students with disabilities (87%, n = 212; χ2 = 111.7, p < .001).
Similarly, more straight students without disabilities felt like part of their campus communities (90%, n =3,894) compared to LGBQ+
students without disabilities (85%, n = 452)
and LGBQ+ students with disabilities (77%,
n = 187; χ2 = 46.6, p < .001). Fewer straight
students with disabilities (87%, n = 486) and
LGBQ+ students without disabilities (86.1%,
n = 460) or LGBQ+ students with disabilities
(81%, n = 198) felt valued by their institutions
than straight students without disabilities
(91%, n = 3,939; χ2 = 36.7, p < .001). Most troubling, however, was the greater proportion of
LGBQ+ students with disabilities (33%, n = 80)
and LGBQ+ students without disabilities (18%,
n = 95) who had personally experienced offensive behavior, discrimination, or harassment at
their institutions based on their sexual orientation compared to their straight peers without
disabilities (6%, n = 237; χ2 = 305.6, p < .001).

LIMITATIONS AND
SUGGESTIONS FOR RESEARCH
Although this study contained many LGBQ+
students both with and without diagnosed
disabilities to show comparisons, we note
that this masks the nuance between students
with differing LGBQ+ identities and those
with differing types of disabilities. Although
we would have liked to further explore within
these groups, some subgroups were particularly small for quantitative analysis. We do not

84

The need for residence hall
environments to be supportive
and affirming of marginalized
identities is critical as, ultimately,
these environments shape students'
identity development and overall
experiences with institutions (Jones
& McEwen, 2000; Miller, 2015, 2017).

assume that all LGBQ+ students or LGBQ+
students with disabilities living on campus
have the same perceptions of and experiences
at their institutions. Given the great diversity
in how students self-identified for the sexual
orientation and disability questions as well as
the diversity of campus residence hall environments, it is difficult to generalize findings.
Additionally, students were limited by
the questions and response options asked of
them on the NSSE survey. We could not, for
example, examine the experiences of students
with undiagnosed disabilities. This could be
problematic given the stigma associated with
learning disabilities or mental health diagnoses. Moreover, although we intended to be critical with our work, future research will benefit
from more specificity such as using crip theories of sexuality (McRuer, 2011) and studies
that could delve deeper into LGBQ+ students
with disabilities' experiences without needing
comparison groups. Although comparisons to
other groups can provide some insight about
their relative experience and further support

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 46, No. 3

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