HomeBlogStudent Voices Mentoring LGBTQ+ Students, Part 1: Considerations for All Mentors by Sabrina L. Perkins, Azul Bellot, and Megan Parks August 26, 2025 Share: Section NavigationSkip section navigationIn this sectionBlog Home AI and Engaged Learning Assessment of Learning Capstone Experiences CEL News CEL Retrospectives CEL Reviews Collaborative Projects and Assignments Community-Based Learning Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity ePortfolio Feedback First-Year Experiences Global Learning Health Sciences High Impact Practices Immersive Learning Internships Learning Communities Mentoring Relationships Online Education Place-Based Learning Professional and Continuing Education Publishing SoTL Reflection and Metacognition Relationships Residential Learning Communities Service-Learning Signature Work Student Leadership Student-Faculty Partnership Studying EL Supporting Neurodivergent and Physically Disabled Students Undergraduate Research Work-Integrated Learning Writing Transfer in and beyond the University Style Guide for Posts to the Center for Engaged Learning Blog For many students, attending a residential college is the first time they have lived away from home. During this time, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBTQ+) students may have increased opportunities to explore, and even freedom to be public about their identity (McHaelen et al. 2021). The National College Health Assessment reported that of the 25,294 students who responded, 5.2 percent defined themselves as trans, non-binary, or gender non-conforming, and 29.4 percent as LGBQ+ (The American College Health Association 2024). Even though a large number of students identify as LGBTQ+, heteronormative standards in higher education contexts lead many LGBTQ+ students to not only feel less supported by their universities, but also that fewer people are looking out for them. Social exclusion, identity-based risks, and other sociopolitical risk factors leave LGBTQ+ students with less access to resources, including mentors. These risks lead many LGBTQ+ students to view themselves as more resilient. Citing their own lack of support, they show increased interest in prosocial behavior and supporting younger LGBTQ+ individuals (Graham 2019). While this prosocial behavior is admirable, LGBTQ+ students should not be the only mentors of other LGBTQ+ students. Regardless of identity, all engaged faculty and staff allies can mentor LGBTQ+ students, or learn to. In this two-part blog post series, we share tips faculty and staff mentors might use to support LGBTQ+ students, using our own experiences and perspectives as a faculty member, a graduate student, and an undergraduate student. In this first post, we discuss ways all mentors can support LGBTQ+ students through personal education, visible allyship, supporting students’ identity development, and humanizing the student. Our next post will make recommendations for mentors who themselves identify as LGBTQ+. Learn More About LGBTQ+ Experiences In order to support students who identify with LGBTQ+ communities, it is important to understand specific challenges they face. Check your institution or local area for available LGBTQ+ ally training courses, as they are often offered by gender and sexuality centers on campuses (McHaelen et al. 2021; see also free facilitator and participant resources for a two-hour ally training workshop from the Safe Zone Project). LGBTQ+ cultural competency trainings tend to focus on building awareness of issues related to diversity and inclusion, as well as power and privilege, knowledge about how systems lead experiences to differ, and developing skills to enact inclusion (Vaccaro, Dooley, and Adams 2021). Examples of topics covered in LGBTQ+ culture competency trainings might include but are not limited to: Overview of the history of LGBTQ+ civil rights movements in your local area, state, or country Explanations about how varied and diverse LGBTQ+ communities are (see examples in figure 1). Experiences are not homogeneous, and identities intersect and create unique experiences of power and privilege or oppression. Consider a White gay cisgender man who was embraced by his family. How might his experience differ from that of a Black nonbinary trans-femme person who had little support (Crenshaw 1991)? Definitions for applicable terminology (e.g., what are personal pronouns?) Descriptions of LGBTQ+ identity development and variations in “coming out” experiences. For example, some people know as children they were assigned the wrong gender at birth, whereas others may not be aware they were a lesbian until they were an adult. Even the phrase “coming out” might feel derogatory for some LGBTQ+ people, as it implies hiding and shame in their experience. Some people may prefer referring to this act as “inviting others in,” which may feel more empowering. Activities designed to help participants understand their own implicit biases that lead them to subconsciously view LGBTQ+ people more negatively than cisgender or straight people. (See the free implicit association tests from Project Implicit.) Figure 1. LGBTQ+ communities signify pride with multi-colored flags. Some are (A) umbrella flags intended to capture a range of multiple identities and experiences, whereas others are more specific, and symbolize various experiences of (B) gender identity and gender expression, (C) sexual orientation and (D) intersections across different cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds. Flag images from Human Rights Campaign. Beyond formal trainings, there are other ways to learn more about LGBTQ+ experiences, including engaging with books, podcasts, films, and other related media, or discussing ideas with colleagues who are also interested in LGBTQ+ allyship (McGill and Schindler 2021). Throughout the process of developing oneself as an ally, it is important to remember that LGBTQ+ identities only make up one component of who a person is. For LGBTQ+ students, it helps to normalize their experience when a professor cares to ask about their identity in relation to their coursework, without making a massive deal about it. Be a Visible Ally Regardless of mentor identity, there are many easy-to-implement signals that show LGBTQ+ allyship. These identity-safety cues (see Johnson et al. 2019) may involve displaying symbols of inclusion or even LGBTQ+ competency training certificates (such as Safe Zone certifications), on office doors, websites, syllabi, or in directory photos. In LGBTQ+ populations, pride flags are frequently used across campuses to signal inclusion, and many high-quality versions are available online for downloading and printing (free printable pride flags are available at Paper Trail Design; see also figure 1). Beyond these symbols, all mentors can take actions to improve their allyship for LGBTQ+ mentees. Showing respect and using mentees’ appropriate names and pronouns are foundational for building trust and can literally save lives (see the 2023 US National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People from The Trevor Project). During introductions, you may hear people saying, “my preferred pronouns are she/her/hers,” but note for transgender, intersex, or queer individuals, referring to pronouns as “preferred” is demeaning. Names and pronouns are not a preference. Ordering oat milk in a cappuccino is a preference. A person’s name and pronouns are simply what they say they are (see pronouns.org for more resources on pronouns). Support Students’ Identity Development and Advocacy Interests Campus climates vary in terms of how accepting they are to LGBTQ+ students. Many students who tour our campus at Elon University have used the Campus Pride Index as a tool to find more inclusive campuses. The site provides national rankings of colleges and universities, based on institutional commitments to LGBTQ-inclusive policies, programs, and practices. Once students have matriculated, all mentors can support LGBTQ+ mentees navigate their campus system to find LGBTGIA and gender-related courses, centers, supportive resources, or peer-mentoring programs, which can be some of the most important spaces in providing support, building confidence and helping new students adjust in their first year in college (Graham 2019; McHaelen et al. 2021). Older LGBTQ+ students may also experience identity affirmation and development by serving as spokespeople, mentors to other LGBTQ+ students, or in leadership positions in relevant student groups, among other things (Graham 2019). Humanize Students Many LGBTQ+ people have experienced hidden pain from trauma, confusion, fear, shame, sadness, anger, rejection, exclusion, lack of support, and other significant challenges due to their identity. Living with the emotional weight of these experiences places LGBTQ+ students at higher risk for experiencing mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, suicidality, and more severe symptomology (langellier and Gess 2021). Being aware of resources to support LGBTQ+ young people (e.g., The Trevor Project; Trans Lifeline), including those on your campus or community—even other mentors—all are important for making appropriate referrals. LGBTQ+ students may need support with housing, accessing gender-affirming healthcare or clothing, navigating challenging family circumstances, and more. In addition, LGBTQ+ students may have interest in connecting with multiple mentors who support them in different ways (e.g., you might be an undergraduate research mentor, but another mentor may connect with your mentee in a more identity-specific way). These multiple mentoring connections, or mentoring constellations (Vandermaas-Peeler 2025), can help students curate circles of support unique to their needs, but they may need help getting steered in the right direction, or recognizing their own agency in making these connections (see Thurman 2024). It is important to recognize that although some LGBTQ+ students may face significant challenges, LGBTQ+ people have demonstrated remarkable strength throughout history and in our current context. Mentors can simultaneously affirm their LGBTQ+ mentee’s strengths while working to enact changes on campus to better support LGBTQ+ students. This post has reviewed a range of actions all faculty and staff mentors can take to support LGBTQ+ mentees. Mentorship can provide LGBTQ+ students with crucial resources and capital related to navigating systems of higher education (Graham 2019). In the second post of this two-part series, we will discuss specific actions LGBTQ+ mentors can take to support LGBTQ+ mentees, stemming from their own experiences. References Campus Pride Index, 2025. “National Listing of LGBTQ-Friendly Colleges & Universities.” Accessed August 13, 2025. https://www.campusprideindex.org/. Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1991. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color.” Stanford Law Review 43 (6): 1241–99. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039. Graham, Brooke Erin. 2019. “Queerly Enequal: LGBT+ Students and Mentoring in Higher Education.” Social Sciences 8 (6): 171. Human Rights Campaign Foundation, 2025. “LBGTQ+ Pride Flags.” Accessed August 13, 2025. https://www.hrc.org/resources/lgbtq-pride-flags. Johnson, India R., Evava S. Pietri, Felicia Fullilove, and Samantha Mowrer (2019). “Exploring Identity-Safety Cues and Allyship Among Black Women Students in STEM Environments.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 43 (2): 131-150. langellier, kristen a., and Jennifer M. Gess. 2021. “LGBTQA+ Students and Mental Health.” Research Anthology on Inclusivity and Equity for the LGBTQ+ Community, edited by Association, Information Resources Management. IGI Global. McGill, Craig M., and Wendy Kay Schindler, 2021. “Becoming Allies and Advocates.” Advising Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer College Students, edited by Craig M. McGill, and Jennifer Joslin. Taylor & Francis Group. McHaelen, Robin, Fleurette King, Diane Goldsmith, and Hayley Pomerantz. 2021. “Opening the Doors for All LGBTQ+ Students.” Research Anthology on Inclusivity and Equity for the LGBTQ+ Community, edited by Association, Information Resources Management. IGI Global. Paper Trail Design, April 4, 2023. “Free Printable Pride Flags.” Accessed August 13, 2025. https://www.papertraildesign.com/free-printable-pride-flags/. Project Implicit, 2011. “Project Implicit Social Attitudes.” Accessed August 13, 2025. https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html. Pronouns Matter, 2025. “Pronouns.org Resources on Personal Pronouns.” Accessed August 13, 2025. https://pronouns.org/. The American College Health Association. 2024. American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment III: Undergraduate Student Reference Group Data Report Fall 2024. American College Health Association. The Safe Zone Project, 2025. Accessed August 13, 2025. https://thesafezoneproject.com/about/what-is-safe-zone/. The Trevor Project, 2025. Accessed August 13, 2025. https://www.thetrevorproject.org/. The Trevor Project, 2023. “The Trevor Project’s 2023 US National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ Young People.” Accessed August 13, 2025. https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2023/. Thurman, Sabrina. 2024. “Strategies to Improve Mentees’ Ability to Build Their Own Mentoring Constellations.” Center for Engaged Learning (blog), Elon University. January 2, 2024. https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/strategies-to-improve-mentees-ability-to-build-their-own-mentoring-constellations. Trans Lifeline, 2025. Accessed August 13, 2025. https://translifeline.org/. Vaccaro, Annemarie, Howard L. Dooley Jr., and Jessica A. Adams. 2021. “Developing LGBTQ Competence in Faculty: The Case of a Faculty Development Series.” Research Anthology on Inclusivity and Equity for the LGBTQ+ Community, edited by Association, Information Resources Management. IGI Global. Vandermaas-Peeler, Maureen. 2025. “’I can find my North Star’: Understanding Mentoring Constellations in Practice.” Center for Engaged Learning (blog). March 18, 2025. https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/i-can-find-my-north-star-understanding-mentoring-constellations-in-practice. About the Authors Sabrina Perkins is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Elon University and served as a seminar leader for CEL’s 2023-2025 research seminar on Mentoring Meaningful Learning Experiences. She is an active mentor of undergraduate research in developmental psychology and co-designed a peer mentoring program to support first generation college students at Elon University. She has several publications and presentations on mentoring in higher education and has received awards for teaching excellence. Azul Bellot is a psychology major at Elon University. She is a 2023-2026 CEL Student Scholar collaborating with participants in the 2023-2025 research seminar on Mentoring Meaningful Learning Experiences. Learn more about the current student scholars. Megan Parks graduated from Elon University in 2025. She was an undergraduate student research mentee who worked with Dr. Sabrina Perkins in the Infant Development Lab, which is housed within the psychology department at Elon University. She is now a Doctor of Occupational Therapy student at Duke University School of Medicine. How to Cite This Post Perkins, Sabrina L., Azul Bellot, and Megan Parks. 2025. “Mentoring LGBTQ+ Students, Part 1: Considerations for All Mentors.” Center for Engaged Learning (blog). August 26, 2025. https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/mentoring-lgbtq-students-part-1-considerations-for-all-mentors.
