This dissertation employed qualitative and Scholarly Personal Narrative research methods to explore the experience lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer (queer) students of color at a Predominantly White institution.  Scholarly Personal Narratives of critical moments from the author’s identity development and experience   as a gay college student of color enhanced the literature review and theoretic framework and provided foregrounding in the first stage of the study.  For the second stage, qualitative phenomenological methods were employed to gather the stories of 14 queer students of color at a Predominantly White Institution. The study produced 29 themes that produced thick description of the phenomenon. The results, framed by four categories of campus climate (behavioral, socio-historical, psychological, and structural / compositional) (Hurtado, Milem, Clayton-Pedersen, & Allen, 1998), offer a glimpse into the interlocking dynamics of racism and homophobia that the queer students of color navigated in their efforts to make meaning of their identities as queer people of color.

Reviewing the results of this study college faculty, staff, and administrators can begin to understand the unique experiences of queer college students of color. This dissertation stands to contribute to theory and practice around appropriate and accurate ways to deal with complexity when measuring the campus climate for diversity.