The first ever LGBTQ oriented scholarship has been created at Colorado Mesa University (CMU) for students. The reason for the scholarship is to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer students.
Much of the inspiration for the scholarship was to honor Jeffrey Alan Basinger, a gay man who lived with HIV for much of his life. Despite his death in May of 2018, Basinger left a lasting legacy.
Basinger was an avid supporter and advocate of the LGBTQ community here in Colorado. He was one of the founders of Western Equality, which was the first LGBTQ rights organization in the state.
Jeff Basinger advocated for people afflicted with HIV/AIDS along with members of the LGBTQ community. For many years, Basinger served in various community organizations as a volunteer. His advocacy efforts included the 1992 campaign, “Vote No on Amendment 2”, working as the founding officer of the Common Decency Coalition and American Voices along with becoming an advisory board member for the Warren McKerrow AIDS Foundation.
He was also a major advocate for people affected with HIV/AIDS, as he was also a founder of the Western Colorado AIDS Project.
CMU President Tim Foster used to swim and dive with Basinger when they were both younger. “(Basinger) was a pretty talented diver,” Foster said.
“People in the community familiar with (Basinger) wanted to set up a scholarship to commemorate him and memorialize him,” Foster said.
Foster continued to express his feeling that all scholarships are important, going on to say that, “They’re all important and it’s really what gets people excited and what they connect with, I mean, we have a scholarship for graduates of Pomona elementary, we have a lot of scholarships in the memory of people, the more sources of places that people have an affinity for, the more scholarship money we have.”
Mike Mansheim, advisor of the Genders and Sexualities Alliance at CMU, also seemed to be excited about the introduction of Basinger’s LGBTQ oriented scholarship.
“We felt like it was super important for CMU to offer [an LGBTQ scholarship], and to make sure we find and support LGBTQ folks in Western Colorado and keep them in Western Colorado,” Mansheim explained.
After the scholarship was publicly launched last week through the announcement that came from CMU Now, Mansheim expressed the significance of it.
“It’s really important for folks that identify as LGBTQ or who are still questioning, particularly if they’re in high school or younger, to know that they’re supported. Just one adult in their life that says ‘I care’ can make a huge difference in their lives. So, this is a huge way to say as an institution that we care, as donors we care, and as people we care,” Mansheim said.
