Members of the ISU lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community are lauding several new private LGBT scholarships that may be used at Iowa State in the future.

Next year, the Matthew Shepard Scholarship will give three incoming freshmen who are LGBT a chance to attend any one of the three regent universities in Iowa.

“It is a full-ride scholarship for four years to any Iowa university for graduating seniors of an Iowa high school who have shown community leadership and a willingness to be out,” said Sarah Schweitzer, member of the ISU Alliance.

Alliance President Jeremy Hayes said the scholarships are a good opportunity for students, adding they encourage high school students to be more open about their sexuality.

“An LGBT student being singled out sends a message to the high schools that it is important to recognize them for their efforts,” he said.

The scholarship is privately sponsored by the First Friday Breakfast Club, a gay men’s club, and Lambda Beta Nu, a lesbian organization, both of Des Moines. It is underwritten by the Rich Eychaner Charitable Foundation.

Breakfast Club member Jeff Sorensen said there has been a lot of confusion about this scholarship.

“These are not state scholarships,” he said. “They are entirely private funds from the gay and lesbian community.”

Sorensen said leadership in the community is key for potential recipients.

“It allows them to dive into leadership and activism by giving them financial relief,” he said. At any one time, there could be up to 12 students who could be working in the LGBT community without being concerned about paying for college, he said.

Members of the LGBT community stressed that the scholarships are private partially because of an upcoming protest by the Westboro Baptist Church. The group is burning the Iowa flag on the Capitol steps April 17 because the church members believe the state is financing the LGBT scholarships.

The source of the money is strictly from private funding even though the announcement was made by Gov. Vilsack during gay-rights activist Judy Shepard’s visit to Iowa, Schweitzer said. Shepard was the mother of Matthew, a gay student who was slain in October 1998.

“Vilsack was just endorsing it. He had nothing to do with it,” she said. “It is not a government scholarship — it is privately funded.”

Jonathan Wilson, president of the First Friday Breakfast Club, said Vilsack was chosen to announce the scholarships largely because he has been so courageous in his support of diversity in this state.

“That distinguishes him from any and every governor before him in the state of Iowa,” he said.