The Context of Creating Space: Assessing the Likelihood of College LGBT Center Presence

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) resource centers are campus spaces dedicated to the success of sexual minority students. However, only a small handful of American colleges and universities have such spaces. Political opportunity and resource mobilization theory can provide a useful framework for understanding what contextual factors contribute to the presence of these centers. Independent variables’ effects on the likelihood of a campus having an LGBT resource center are measured using logistic regression. Results indicate that public schools with more prestige in liberal political contexts are more likely to have LGBT resource centers, suggesting that both resource mobilization and political opportunity are useful conceptualizations.