"The most important quality of a doctoral program that is friendly toward lesbian and bisexual individuals is a collection of faculty and staff that hold among their core   values a genuine celebration of diversity, which, by definition, excludes them from holding heterosexism as a value. This quality speaks to a pervasive, all-encompassing recognition that everyone is not heterosexual, and it is that absence of heterosexism that, almost by definition, creates a doctoral program that is friendly towards and welcoming of individuals of any sexual orientation" (Nutt, Edwards, Reimers, Kams, Jackley, Frock, Maddux, Ruppenicker, & Beno, 2014).

I call the period of my life when I completed my first Ph.D in 2007, my "wake up era".  I was coming alive with the love of living in higher education as well as coming out into my own sexual orientation.  I was fully expecting to find a lot more students and faculty just like me; but, what I found instead was a lot of heterosexism.  That was seven years ago; and, now that Sharon is nearing the end of her doctoral program, we decided to talk about our experiences at two different schools in two different programs.   Has anything changed in seven years? 

Tune in as we talk about what we've observed as doctoral students and I will share my experience as a practitioner in the field.  If you are LGBTQ and thinking about completing your doctoral degree, this is one show that you don't want to miss!

Article Source: http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/friendly-program.aspx

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