Columbia College is a private, non-profit, co-educational liberal arts university. Its roots are Christian, and it maintains an association with the mainline Protestant Disciples of Christ Church. However, the college describes itself as a "nonsectarian college welcoming all students," and is proud of the diversity of its student body. The principal LGBT group at Columbia is the Horizons Gay-Straight Alliance, whose members work to promote inclusiveness on campus, providing support to LGBT students while educating others about the LGBT community. Keep in mind that, though friendly and active, Columbia College's LGBT community is not a large one, as the university itself is small: just 1,200 students study at the day campus.
Similarly intimate in scale is Stephens College. Educating women only, Stephens is the second-oldest women's college in the country, and maintains a proud liberal arts tradition. Reassuringly, for members of all minority groups, the college lists the first of the "Ten Ideals" that govern its philosophy as "respect for our own dignity and the dignity of others." Stephens' LGBT community is active through the Queer-Straight Alliance, a social justice group that promotes the discussion of all manner of gender identity and sexual orientation issues at the university, which the alliance wryly refers to as a "mostly" women's college.
As a much larger college than either Stephens or Columbia, the University of Missouri is accordingly able to offer a much greater level of specialist LGBT support than its neighbors. This comes in the form of the outstanding LGBTQ Resource Center. The center houses an extensive library of LGBT-related media, operates outreach programs and is involved in the organization of large-scale, campus-wide LGBT rights, awareness and pride events. It also offers a quiet, safe, intimate space for students exploring, questioning or worrying about their sexuality to meet understanding professionals as well as fellow student members of the LGBT community.
Notably, the center's resources are also available for the use of students from Stephens and Columbia. As such, it functions as a social hub not merely for the University of Missouri's LGBT community, but for the whole city's LGBT student body.
It's worth remembering that, just as students from Stephens and Columbia are welcome to take advantage of the important LGBT resources available at the University of Missouri, members of all three colleges can benefit from the support offered by the wider LGBT community of the Columbia area. The Center Project describes itself as "Mid-Missouri's first and only community center focused on the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and ally residents," and one of its particular emphases is on supporting the youth element of the community. The Mid-Missouri LGBT Coalition is also prominent, running the annual PrideFest in downtown Columbia. Columbia is also home to an active chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays).