The Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays decided 12 years ago that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered students needed a scholarship just for them.
And so PFLAG of New Orleans created the Louisiana LGBT scholarship, available to University students this month.
According to a PFLAG press release, the organization will award more than 25 $1,000 awards to recognize “outstanding [LGBT] students.”
Scholarships are available to students who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered and attend a post-secondary institution.
Giving the scholarship is part of the organization’s mission, which is to support LGBT community members and advocate policies that will benefit them, according to the PFLAG Web site.
Jonathon Clark, a secondary education junior, said LGBT students need a scholarship awarded specifically to them.
“I think you can consider [the LGBT community] a minority,” Clark said. “There are scholarships for other minorities on campus. I guess we are just not as well-established as they are, but we can benefit from scholarships just as much.”
There are scholarships awarded at the University for minorities such as women and blacks, but they are awarded by individual colleges and departments, said Christine Day, associate director of scholarships. There also are scholarships awarded exclusively to women such as the American Society of Women Accountants Scholarship awarded by the accounting department. There are others awarded exclusively to students of an ethnic minority such as the Freeport McMoran Minority Scholarship awarded by The Manship School of Mass Communication.
Day said she did not know of any scholarships for LGBT students listed in the University catalogue.
Clark said the PFLAG scholarship will significantly benefit the LGBT community because of the lack of existing scholarships awarded to LGBT students.
But he also said the scholarship should be open not only to LGBT students but also to the friends and families of those students.
Robbie Schleicher, a sociology sophomore, also said the scholarship should be open to the “LGBT support group.”
“They are just so important to the community,” he said.
For Schleicher, the scholarship is encouraging.
“I think it’s just great that PFLAG is reaching out to LGBT students at LSU,” he said.
Students can apply for the scholarship by visiting the PFLAG Web site, www.pflagno.org.
Persons interested in making donations to PFLAG to be used for the scholarship also may visit the Web site.