April 9, 2007Black Colleges Fail to Welcome Gay Students and GroupsGay students often feel unwelcome at historically black colleges,where homophobia may prevent classmates and administrators alike fromacknowledging the presence of lesbians and gay men, reports theAssociated Press.The wire service says black colleges have a disproportionately smallnumber of gay-student organizations, in some cases because the groupscan’t find faculty members willing to serve as advisers. HamptonUniversity has twice refused to permit a gay-student group to formbecause of a moratorium on the number of student organizations.A representative of the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group, toldthe AP that some historically black colleges were hostile to the ideaof allowing groups of gay students to meet, while others denied havingany gay students.But the head of the Coalition of African-American Pastors in Memphis,Tenn., said black-college administrators “don’t have to give a lot ofreasons” for banning gay-student groups, because acceptance ofhomosexuality would be “a threat to the black family.”