By Kevin Leonard, Photo: Screenshot from article, Times Higher Education, June 1, 2023
Many US colleges and universities boast robust policies that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, but members of the LGBTQ community remain under-represented among academic leaders. The small number of LGBTQ leaders on campuses leave LGBTQ faculty, staff and students feeling excluded and marginalised. Higher education needs to implement programmes to eliminate discrimination and prepare LGBTQ employees for leadership roles.
My path to leadership illustrates some of the challenges faced by aspiring LGBTQ leaders. In 2006, colleagues nominated me to serve as department chair. I had been a department member for nine years and had assembled a solid record of institutional service. I had never received formal mentoring for a leadership role, but colleagues persuaded me that I had demonstrated the ability to lead effectively and that I was ready to serve at that time.
Other members of the department nominated another candidate ā a straight man who had been a department member for only three years. My opponent won the election and was appointed chair. After the election, one colleague told me that he voted for my opponent because he thought I would be too sensitive to withstand the criticism that I would face in making and implementing difficult decisions. I suspect that I lost the election because several of my colleagues harboured negative perceptions about members of the LGBTQ community.
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