You know, one of the reasons I am most looking forward for college is the social aspect. In high school, I would dread the social aspect and only look forward to the academics, but for college I am looking forward to the academics as well as the social life. I've never been part of any LGBT related groups or even know many people who are LGBT (2-5 at the most, but they aren't really friends of mine). I am considering possible being a bit more open with my sexual orientation in college and joining the LGBT groups the campus has to offer. But I'm sort of a bit nervous... "what if I don't exactly fit in?" "what if i'm just to quiet and shy to interact with them and make friends?" "what if all of my attempts at friends is like that?" stuff like that, you know? It makes me worry. I have no clue what to expect out of college LGBT groups or college in general. As the new year closes in, I've been trying to research on what I can expect so nothing surprises me, but all I am getting is surface level stuff, nothing deep. TL;DR - I'm excited for joining LGBT organizations in college, man! :icon_bigg
It's going to vary a lot according to what college you go to. If you have some firm ideas of where you want to go, you could look up LGBT groups at those colleges and even email them or send a Facebook message with some questions about what they are like, how they run, and what they offer. I've loved the LGBT+ group at my university. They do a lot of stuff. The main thing is a weekly social event which starts out at a bar in the university. They specify that non-alcoholic drinks are available, they can and will kick out anyone who is disrespectful or invades your privacy, and there is a room next door for quieter chatting, games, or a film. (That's where I always go.) Then they move on to a bar in the city which has a drag night. They also run awareness campaigns for LGBT+ topics, educate students at local schools, pressure the university to be more inclusive, and provide welfare support for LGBT+ students. All this goes on continuously, and there are various other one-off events or regular things for smaller groups too. There is a multisexuality representative who organises meetups for bi/pan/poly students at a local café, for example. Plus they send some people to the national LGBT+ student conference each year. The best thing about the first term of university is that everyone has the same concerns as you about fitting in and making friends, so everyone is incredibly friendly and it's hard not to meet someone like yourself. Within the LGBT group, everyone* is friendly and making special effort to be inclusive and extra aware of awkwardness/anxiety people may have. You'll be alright. * Not that all LGBT people are inherently great or that all groups will be like this, just that the people in this group haven't let me down yet.
