GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) applauded today’s decision by the United States Supreme Court upholding the University of Texas’s admissions policy in which race may be considered as a factor.

GLAD joined Lambda Legal, National Women’s Law Center and other partners to submit an amicus brief in the case, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. The brief argued that racial and ethnic understanding can be expanded, and thus disparities decreased, when stereotypes are confronted by the reality of daily contact with people different from oneself.

“We applaud this decision, which supports equal opportunity and a fair chance for overcoming obstacles to education,” said Mary Bonauto, Civil Rights Project Director at GLAD. “We all benefit when our institutions of higher learning are able to foster and maintain diverse student bodies. LGBT people have experienced the change that we make when we simply come out to the people in our lives, whether in families, at work, in church, in the neighborhood, or on campus.”

Mayer Brown LLP is lead counsel on the amicus brief, which can be read here.