Massachusetts will be the first state in the nation to fund college student groups for gays, the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth announced Friday.

The Safe Colleges Program for Gay and Lesbian Students will provide 14 Massachusetts public colleges $2,000 each to protect gay and lesbian students by creating anti-discriminatory school policies, training faculty and counselors in crisis intervention, and promoting gay and lesbian awareness.

"We must respond to the needs of our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender college students," said Arthur Lipkin, project coordinator for the program. "Their safety, health and academic success are at stake."

The state funds 120 gay student groups in high schools.

Gay and lesbian students representing Harvard, Northeastern, UMass-Amherst and other Massachusetts colleges said administrators have either ignored harassment and discrimination against homosexual students or suggested that they leave school.

Danielle Murray, a Boston College student, said some BC students are afraid to associate with gays.

She said this attitude is promoted by the administration's anti-gay policy, deepened by its refusal to include the term "sexual orientation" in its non-discrimination policy.

"In a recent meeting with [BC President] Father [William] Leahy to discuss the matter, he told us that he wouldn't change the policy because if he did, he wouldn't have the ability to fire an RA if he found out they were gay," Murray said.

"He also tried to tell us that the discrimination we face on campus is good for us because then we get pity from the student body," she said.

Lipkin said the Safe Colleges Program will help change school policies that promote stereotypes or discriminate against homosexuals.

Resident assistants from Simmons College and UMass- Amherst said they were both pushed out of their positions because the schools couldn't protect them from harassment by residents.

"I didn't want to leave the dorm," said Buzz Harris, 27, a former UMass RA. Harris' door was repeatedly vandalized with eggs, mayonnaise, pornography and even a knife. School officials asked Harris to leave, but he wanted to stay to support other gay students, he said.

Kate Ahearn said she experienced a similar pattern of harassment and vandalism as an RA at Simmons. Residents scrawled "lezzie," "dyke" and "homo" on her door; threw a rock through her window; and spit on her in a stairwell. Ahearn said the Simmons' administration did nothing to intervene.

"I begged Residence Life to take action," Ahearn said. "My grades and self-esteem were plummeting. Residence Life started complaining that I was letting these 'personal issues' interfere with my job."

The harassment went so far, Ahearn said, that she once attempted suicide, swallowing several bottles of pills.

Ahearn said she was hired mid-year as a sophomore as part of the college's unsuccessful attempt to diversify the RA staff.

"I was good enough to be the gay RA as long as I didn't talk about it," Ahearn said. "I think the attitude at Simmons is that nothing gets to the point of violence, so they have tons of time to handle a conflict. They figure girls won't beat people up."