LGBT scholarships: do I have to officially come out?

MWF

I was walking through my dorm, and I saw a sign advertising possible scholarships for LGBT students. Originally, this post was gonna be about "how do I trick them into giving me an LGBT scholarship" before remembering that, oh wait, I AM bi. But really, no amount of money* is worth coming out to my parents, or ANYBODY other than 2 close friends. My moms homophobic, my grandparents think the LGBT community is evil, my brothers would never look at me the same again, friends too, blah blah, the usual. If I got the scholarship, would my parents be guaranteed to find out? My dad handles the finances.
If it came down to it, I could get my best friend to act like hes my boyfriend if I need to do an interview. We're really tight.

Hiraeth

Depends on the scholarship. Some of these I've found are explicitly looking for students who have active engagement with LGBT communities and issues, so that would be a bit of a problem. But if it doesn't specify anything like that, I would think that explaining your situation would be acceptable to the people making the decision. They should understand that coming out can be a very dangerous move for some people, especially if your parents are in control of your finances. That said, how will you explain this random influx of money to your dad, if you got such a scholarship? I don't know about where you live but scholarships may also be considered taxable income, meaning you could receive a tax slip for it next year, with a description of what the scholarship is and everything.

MWF

They tax scholarships? Are you kidding me? The priorities of this country are fucked.
And I'm from Michigan, btw (America).

PSY

This webpage should clear things up a bit, Robert. It looks like it depends on what you use the scholarship for.

I remember receiving a 1098-T form at the end of January 2012 and 2013 when I was in grad school. Granted, I didn't receive funding through a scholarship (it was through the Montgomery GI Bill/Yellow Ribbon Program), but that's something else you may want to look in to. Your parents would probably start asking questions if you received that form, and they weren't aware of your having received any kind of funding for school.