FAQs

Diversity and inclusion can serve as catalysts for academic excellence and both are central to the mission of the University. The LGBTQ Center provides support, advocacy and outreach, but it goes beyond the LGBTQ community. It’s about creating the opportunity for everyone to engage in the Wake Forest community to their fullest potential.

Wake Forest students are going to go out and do great things, be doctors, lawyers, teachers, presidents of multinational corporations, and one thing they will need in this changing world is to have a high level of cultural competency. By giving students the tools to be culturally competent citizens of the world, we help them to fulfill the University’s mission of serving humanity.

The LGBTQ Center provides support and advocacy to Wake Forest University’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning students, faculty and staff, and education to the entire campus community about issues of gender identity and sexual orientation through our events and programs.

Because LGBTQ people are an invisible minority, there is no way to know for sure. WFU does not track LGBTQ students, and even if we tried to, it is impossible to know how many people in any community are LGBTQ until everyone feels secure enough to come out. However, the LGBTQ Center is working hard to make sure that Wake has an open and welcoming campus climate so that LGBTQ students can feel comfortable being out.

Yes, both.

If you experience bias or harassment on the basis of any aspect of your identity, please report your experience through our Bias Reporting System. Reports can be made confidentially, but the more information you are able to provide, the more care, support, and response the Bias Incident Response Team can provide. You can also contact the University Police and/or the LGBTQ Center to report incidents of bias or harassment and receive support.

We have many resources on coming out and other topics in the LGBTQ Center (Benson 311), as well as on our resources page. The Human Rights Campaign and PFLAG have excellent coming out resources.

Absolutely! The Counseling Center offers individual counseling, group counseling, and support groups for LGBTQ students. Counseling Center staff have extensive training in LGBTQ-specific support.

Check our events and programs pages, or sign up for a listserv to hear about upcoming LGBTQ events and programs.

You can identify supportive faculty and staff that have completed the Safe Zone training by the Safe Zone stickers they display.

Yes, a gender neutral restroom directory is available.

Yes, you can!

Students can change their “display name” in Canvas by following the following procedure:
1. Login to WIN
2. Click on the personal tab
3. Click on the link “Your Personal Information”. This brings up the screen to edit detailed info including “preferred name”.
4. Edit “preferred name” and submit the change.
5. The change is emailed to the Office of the University Registrar, who will update this information in Banner.

Once you submit the request it may take 24 hours before Canvas is updated.