Do LGBT have a higher education?

[Psymark]

I don't know if this question has been raised before but I'm asking it anyway. Is there any reaserch on sexual orientation and education? Do they tend to go for a higher education more than the average straight person?

However, I don't want to immediately talk about intelligence. Let's talk about education.

[Steve712]

I know that LGBT students tend to have a higher rate of dropping out and grade retention in high school due to bullying, stress and depression, so I wouldn't be surprised if the case were the opposite of what you're asking.

[Psymark]

My actual thought process is that I really think that the "gay population" in universities is higher than society in general. Of course, this point of view comes from a gay man in a social sciences program. But still. I wanted to ask the question.

[fiddledeedee]

I think it is more likely that the atmosphere and age range at universities means that many ofthose who are LGBT are happy to be out and, uh, flaunt their sexuality. Younger ages might not have come out or figured themselves out, older ages are settling down more and older ages still have grown up with more discrimination than nowadays.

[Kidd]

I do think there are some studies out there but I couldn't find them. I do know, however, that LGBT people drop out of high school at a higher rate than heterosexuals because of harassment and bullying and stuff like that, but of those that do graduate, I think a higher percentage go on towards higher education. I also remember reading a study where schools ranked who the best students were, on average, based on their student's sexuality, and gay men were the best and most involved on campus, and bisexual females were the worst and among the least involved.

[Steve712]

Originally Posted by Kidd

I also remember reading a study where schools ranked who the best students were, on average, based on their student's sexuality, and gay men were the best and most involved on campus, and bisexual females were the worst and among the least involved.

Hm, interesting. Can you provide a URL, if you found it online? I'd be interested to see whether they found a correlation between the sexualities and enthusiasm in school or whether it's just a statistical fluke.

[Kidd]

Originally Posted by Steve712

Hm, interesting. Can you provide a URL, if you found it online? I'd be interested to see whether they found a correlation between the sexualities and enthusiasm in school or whether it's just a statistical fluke.

This is an article for that one. I still didn't find the other ones, but I know there are some out there.

Gay Men on Campus: Smart, Studious, Involved - Miller-McCune

[Psymark]

Gay guys get shit done, basically.

[Steve712]

Originally Posted by Kidd

This is an article for that one. I still didn't find the other ones, but I know there are some out there.

Gay Men on Campus: Smart, Studious, Involved - Miller-McCune

Thanks!

[maverick]

I also remember reading a study where schools ranked who the best students were, on average, based on their student's sexuality, and gay men were the best and most involved on campus, and bisexual females were the worst and among the least involved.

I read about this study too, on Queerty.

TG personal experience? School was a very bad time for me, overcome with depression I gave up studying and flopped everything. Had things been different, i know i would have been doing somthing with my life right now... i didnt care back then but now i know that when things change, hopefully i can retake a load of things and get my education back on track :/

Just alot of waiting

[thecat06]

I find that interesting, I have a lot of bisexual women friends and they are involved and get good grades.

[Dominoflare]

don't particularly see what sexuality has to do with education or intelligence...

[Veronica]

I find academics to be significantly more open-minded than the population in general. However since higher education is free over here, about 40% of young people get a degree these days, and they represent pretty much every kind of background available. That would in turn mean that education make people more open-minded and tolerant, and it may provide a better social setting for people coming out. That in turn may result in academia having more openly LGBT people, which would affect such a statistic or impression.

Just my immediate train of thought ... may be wrong, got no data to back it up.

[maverick]

In my personal experience, half of my male gay friends in college graduated, and half of them flunked out. (I didn't know any lesbians.)

But it was more due to personal lifestyle choices than their sexualities. We partied hard and some guys just couldn't handle the pressure of balancing their academic, work, and social lives. And it seemed like the more emotionally unstable gay guys who did poorly - aka, the ones that were rejected by their families for their homosexuality.

Luckily I was one of those hardcore kids that could be drinking a rum and Coke in the
4:00 AM aftermath of a keg party, and still manage to be sitting in class taking notes by 9:00. (Not enthusiastically, but I'd show up.)

It's all about priorities.

[Kidd]

Originally Posted by maverick

Luckily I was one of those hardcore kids that could be drinking a rum and Coke in the
4:00 AM aftermath of a keg party, and still manage to be sitting in class taking notes by 9:00. (Not enthusiastically, but I'd show up.)

It's all about priorities.

Where have you been all my life? That's my favorite drink, that and an Amy Winehouse. ^_^

Um, yeah, it's about priorities. It isn't so much our sexuality but what environments it puts us in. I think gay men are less likely, even in college, to be in a relationship than a bisexual girl. If a gay man doesn't have a relationship he's left with friends and work/school. Personally, I'm not dating anyone, and I don't work during the school semesters, so I have the extra time to be involved in clubs on campus and volunteer. I have more time to do my homework. I was on the Dean's List last semester. If I had a boyfriend and a job or a kid, I don't think I would have managed it. That's not really much of an explanation either though, because obviously some people can handle a job, and a kid and a boyfriend and still be on the Dean's List, but I hope you guys get what I mean here.

Also, this article I linked to isn't saying that bisexual women get poor grades. It's saying that on average gay men get higher grades and are more involved--it isn't putting anyone down and this is just speaking in very general terms. Bisexuals can be intelligent and involved. Gay men can be stupid and lazy.

[Veronica]

When talking about intelligence it is always talking about a slight difference in the mean. The distributions are gaussian and strongly overlapping. Saying that gays on average are more intelligent means nothing on the individual level, and that statistical result may very well be because of factors like I mentioned. It doesn't take much to skew a result like that. That's why you usually look for interactions between factors in statistics. The same goes for intelligence between genders. Education makes you more intelligent, When women get the same access to education, the differences tend to disappear, so does the differences between races and so on.

Yes, I have a few uni-courses in statistics ... so sue me!

[maverick]

Where have you been all my life? That's my favorite drink, that and an Amy Winehouse. ^_^

Did you know that I thought a rum-and-Coke was called a "Roman Coke" until about my third college house party?

True story. And I'd been calling them Roman Cokes since I was about thirteen.

Yay for Southern accents. Lol.

[Aya McCabre]

In theory if you felt that being gay meant you weren't good enough then you might try to be better at everything else to compensate? Or if you felt that being in the closet and lying to everyone made you a bad person, so you tried to be perfect in other ways? It would be interesting to see if there are more queer people at tertiary education places in countries where it is less accepted compared to where it's not so much of a social issue.

[Psymark]

I think we have to remember that we're talking about education and not intellience. I precised this in my first post. It's not because you're intelligent that you will get far and it's not because you're less intelligent that you will not succeed. What I'm trying to find is if in general, when you compare statistics, do we see more LGTB people with a higher education than heterosexuals? Is there a higher percentage of degrees, masters and doctorates?