Key scholars have studied campus climate, and often these climate studies are done through the lens of race and racial issues on campus. A few studies have explored the interaction between campus climate and sexual and gender minority students. However, those studies, like the climate studies through a racial lens, found that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) or sexual minority students and transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) or gender minority students perceive the campus in a more negative way than their heterosexual and non-transgender counterparts do, which makes disclosure or coming out more difficult. Studies focusing on the LGBT community often lump the entire group together, ignoring the difference between sexual minority (LGBQ) students and gender minority (TGNC) students and further conflating sexual identity and gender identity. This study will be the first of its kind to compare the two often conflated groups, and explore the ways in which college and university climates may differently affect LGBQ and TGNC students' levels of outness. Using a conceptual model developed from the campus climate literature, identity development literature for gender and sexual minority individuals, and research on coming out in the academy, this dissertation sought to identify the impact of campus climate on sexual minority and gender minority students' levels of outness. The model was tested using descriptive statistics, linear and logistic regression, and t-tests. The sample for this study was derived from a campus climate study, The 2010 State of Higher Education for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People. This analysis also identified characteristics that predict students' levels of outness on campus. Finally, the analysis compared the levels of outness for sexual minority and gender minority students to see if climate impacts one group's outness more than the other's. The findings showed that sexual minority students who identify as persons of color, live on campus at their current institutions, identify as cisgender women, are undergraduate students, and come from higher socioeconomic backgrounds had greater odds of being out to some or most on their campus. Gender minority students who attended school in states with conservative laws and policies toward the LGBT community and who identified as students of color were more likely to be out to some or most on their college campuses. In investigating the campus climate impact on sexual and gender minority students' level of outness, a perception of harassment was significant for both students groups. Perception of classroom safety and a positive response to harassment and discrimination from one's campus were also both significant to being out for both sexual and gender minority students. Distinctive to the gender minority student group was perception of safety in different campus environments. A noteworthy finding was that gender minority students were less likely to be out than sexual minority students, and gender minority students perceived the campus climate more negatively than did sexual minority students. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]