These two cases are high-profile examples of a pernicious and escalating phenomenon within our field. DEI work is intrinsically antagonistic to institutions because DEI practitioners endeavor to create more welcome, inclusive, and just communities. QT resource practitioners are being terminated, reassigned, and pushed out of their jobs for doing their jobs. Consortium members have reported having their social media surveilled, being told they cannot talk about politics, and facing disciplinary action for advocating for their communities. 

 Practitioners are navigating treacherous campus climates and an increasingly hostile political landscape in tandem with biased media attacks. On Wednesday, October 16, the New York Times published an article about the diversity, equity, and inclusion enterprise at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. Riddled with misinformation, the article targeted various DEI efforts, including the educational workshops from the Spectrum Center. QT resource practitioners are used to lies and misinformation about our programs. Attacks like this are common but usually come from fringe media, not the New York Times.

In our 2024 Consortium Member Needs Assessment Report, 76% of respondents reported seriously considering leaving or having left a position. Two primary reasons for this included a lack of institutional support and poor management/issues with a supervisor. It is more important now than ever for student affairs leaders to provide quality, identity-conscious, and developmental supervision to QT resource practitioners. 

While anti-DEI and anti-2SLGBTQIA+ legislation is defunding positions and programs and forcing centers to close, student affairs leaders are failing to show up and advocate for QT resource practitioners and the communities we serve. Instead of using their power to support and advocate for QT students, faculty, and staff, university administrations use management tactics that rob QT resource practitioners of our humanity. We urge university leaders to stand up against anti-DEI and anti-2SLGBTQIA+ legislation, including resisting the pressure to over-comply due to fear of litigation. The time for institutional courage is now. 

Scholarship demonstrates (Bazarsky et al., 2022; Duran et al., 2023; Hill et al., 2021; Gilbert et al., 2021; Marine, 2012; Mundy, 2018; Pitcher et al., 2018) the value of QT resource work for QT students, cisgender and heterosexual students, as well as faculty, staff, and alumnx of all genders and sexualities. Queer and trans communities need student affairs leaders to demonstrate their espoused values in the face of politically motivated attacks on our lives, jobs, and centers. As the Consortium we support and advocate for queer and trans people, including Petey, Warren, and so many others who are facing antagonism in their work and whose livelihoods are directly impacted by institutional disinvestments from DEI efforts.

We call upon college and university leaders, especially in student affairs, to take the threats to our work seriously and protect QT resource work and practitioners.