The Top 10 Trans-Friendly Colleges and Universities

With improvements made across the country, for the first time ever, Campus Pride can assemble a list of the most welcoming places for trans students to go to college.

BY Genny Beemyn and Shane Windmeyer

August 15 2012 5:00 AM ET

University of California, Riverside
Riverside, Calif.
Campus Pride Index LGBT-Friendly Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Gender Identity/Expression Score: 5 out of 5 Stars

Although often in the shadow of the larger, more well-known University of California schools, UC Riverside (UCR) is one of the country’s most active colleges in educating the campus about trans people. Through its LGBT Resource Center, UCR offers an ally training program specifically about the experiences of trans people, and it commemorates the Transgender Day of Remembrance through a series of posters displayed around campus that feature individuals who have been murdered because of their gender identity or expression. Complimenting this effort, the center is currently developing a poster project of important living trans figures, with a focus on trans people of color. In 2005, UCR was the first public college in the U.S. to offer gender-inclusive housing for both incoming and returning students. This year, the college collaborated with eight other campuses to organize the country’s first intercampus retreat for trans/genderqueer and gender-questioning college students, building on a highly successfully trans retreat at UC Irvine in 2011.