One group that has received little attention in conversations regarding broadening participation in STEM is the LGBQ community-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer-or sexual minority.

The underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) of women, racial and ethnic minorities, and students from other groups is, thus, a problem because broader participation increases the diversity of perspectives in these fields ( 2, 3). Diverse teams are more likely to reach scientific breakthroughs and technological innovations because people who bring different perspectives to a problem envision different solutions ( 1).