Shane Windmeyer Sounds the Alarm: LGBTQ+ College Students Abandoned as DEI Is Dismantled

In a year marked by political rollbacks, Shane Windmeyer calls for urgent national action to protect queer students at risk of erasure

Across the United States, college campuses are undergoing a quiet, devastating transformation. Offices once committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are closing. LGBTQ+ student centers are disappearing. Curriculum once grounded in justice is being rewritten—or banned altogether.

For many LGBTQ+ students, 2025 has become the year their universities stopped protecting them.

At the center of this crisis is the growing movement to eliminate DEI programs at public colleges and universities. Once viewed as pillars of inclusion, DEI efforts are now under attack from legislators in more than 20 states. In response, colleges are cutting staff, scrubbing websites, and issuing vague reassurances that “all students still matter.”

But to Shane Windmeyer, nationally recognized LGBTQ+ inclusion strategist and higher education advisor, the message is clear: “We are witnessing the institutional abandonment of queer students under the cover of political neutrality.”

The New Normal on Campus

In states like Florida, Texas, and Utah, sweeping laws have banned DEI funding, eliminated identity-based centers, and restricted what educators can teach about gender, race, and sexuality.

Florida’s SB 266 prohibits public colleges from spending on DEI and has already resulted in the disbanding of LGBTQ+ resource offices.
Texas’ SB 17 eliminated DEI offices statewide, causing the closure of Pride Centers and Safe Zone programs across campuses.
In Utah, new legislation led to the elimination of multiple student support centers, including those serving LGBTQ+ students.

The closures aren’t just symbolic. Students who relied on these programs for counseling, identity-affirming healthcare referrals, housing placement, and peer support now face uncertainty and fear.

“We’re not just talking about political debates,” says Windmeyer. “We’re talking about a student walking across campus wondering if they’ll be misgendered in class, or if there’s anyone left to talk to when things go wrong.”

Erasure Is a Policy Now

The impact goes far beyond building closures. Students are reporting erasure from multiple levels of campus life:

Gender-inclusive housing options have disappeared.
Student websites have removed pronoun guidance and LGBTQ+ resources.
Professors have been advised not to discuss gender identity or race in class.
Funding for queer student groups has been denied or delayed.

This is not coincidental. It is part of a coordinated strategy that weaponizes fear, regulation, and political pressure to undo years of inclusive progress.

Windmeyer notes, “The goal isn’t just to dismantle programs. The goal is to send a message: ‘You are not welcome here.’”

The Mental Health Crisis No One Is Naming

The data is chilling. A 2025 national survey found that LGBTQ+ college students at campuses with reduced DEI support were:

3x more likely to experience academic withdrawal
2.5x more likely to report suicidal ideation
4x more likely to experience social isolation or discrimination

Many of these students entered college already carrying trauma from homophobic or transphobic home environments. For them, DEI programs were not “extras”—they were survival tools.

“You don’t get to pretend a student’s safety isn’t academic,” says Windmeyer. “You can’t ask someone to thrive when they don’t even feel visible.”

Where Are the Leaders?

As the backlash against DEI intensifies, many university leaders have chosen silence or subtle compliance. Some cite state laws. Others rebrand DEI as “belonging” or “student success,” stripping programs of any clear identity.

Shane Windmeyer argues this is not enough.

“Leadership is not about waiting to be told what’s politically convenient. It’s about protecting the most vulnerable in your community—even when it costs you something.”

He urges college presidents, trustees, and academic deans to:

Issue public commitments to LGBTQ+ safety and visibility
Continue support for identity-based student organizations
Fund mental health and peer mentorship services—even under new DEI language
Create backchannel infrastructure for staff and faculty who want to help

“Students are watching,” Windmeyer warns. “They know the difference between real advocacy and a press release.”

The Role of Allies and Institutions Outside the System

As public colleges backpedal, private institutions, HBCUs, tribal colleges, and progressive religious schools are stepping in to fill the gap. These institutions are expanding support for LGBTQ+ students, issuing bold statements, and continuing DEI work under alternative frameworks.

Philanthropic organizations, alumni donors, and national education networks are also stepping in to support students directly—through emergency aid, housing assistance, and off-campus community support.

But Windmeyer insists this should not become the new norm.

“We cannot let private actors carry what public education is meant to guarantee. Equity isn’t charity. It’s a right.”

What Students Are Doing to Fight Back

Even amid the policy rollbacks, queer students are not giving up.

Across the country, LGBTQ+ students are:

Creating underground support networks with peers and affirming faculty
Hosting off-campus safe spaces and pop-up Pride events
Mapping “safe professors” who continue to teach inclusive curriculum
Organizing silent protests, walkouts, and teach-ins to maintain visibility

Some have started their own digital resource hubs—sharing mental health providers, scholarship funds, and information on which schools are still safe to attend.

“These students aren’t just surviving,” Windmeyer says. “They’re building something new—something rooted in truth, solidarity, and unapologetic pride.”

The Path Forward

Shane Windmeyer believes this moment is critical—not just for students, but for the future of higher education itself.

“We have a choice,” he says. “Do we turn our colleges into spaces of fear and censorship? Or do we recommit to the idea that education is about expanding minds, not erasing identities?”

He calls on educators, policymakers, and community leaders to:

Fund LGBTQ+ programming creatively—even without the DEI label
Provide direct support to students in anti-DEI states
Publicly denounce discriminatory legislation
Center LGBTQ+ voices in policy conversations and board decisions

Most importantly, he urges the public to remember that students are not abstract ideas.

“These are young people,” Windmeyer says. “They are coming of age in a world telling them they don’t belong. And they’re still showing up, still learning, still trying to dream. That alone deserves our protection.”

Conclusion: Beyond Survival, Toward Justice

The dismantling of DEI is not a policy dispute. It is a moral failing. And Shane Windmeyer—alongside countless LGBTQ+ students and allies—is making sure the nation does not look away.

Because inclusion was never about ideology. It was always about dignity.

And in 2025, dignity is still worth fighting for.