So I went to my preview at my college this past week and it was a decent experience... I got more of a feel of the school I am going to. Anyway, one thing that stuck out for me was my college adviser. She was giving a presentation in front of a group of people who's adviser she was and their parents. And she was saying what her job is. Her job is to basically be a go-to for advice and such. She told us that people have gone to her for a variety of issues in the past and one of the examples she said was that one student went to her for help because he was gay, only a few people knew, and he needed help coming out to his mom. In my high school, people were generally excepting of gay people, but faculty tended to ignore the topic as much as possible in fear of causing controversy, but it made my day to see someone like that boldly state anything to do with LGBT in front of a crowd that they don't know well as opposed to avoiding the issue so obviously like they did at my public high school.
interesting. my uni has a Rainbow Society and once a year joins RIT in NY for Colorfest. it should be unique, deaf queers.
Rochester Institute of Technology, a deaf college. it is in NY. i will be in DC, at Gallaudet University, a huge deaf university with deaf/hoh from all over the world, very diverse! I am curious how this will turn out? looks promising: Queer on Campus :: EDGE New England
Sounds really cool and legit! ---------- Post added 11th Jul 2012 at 12:34 AM ---------- More mature people, more people, and increasing acceptance in society are definitely helping!
Yeah, professors and faculty at colleges are able to be way more forward and honest about their opinions and believes. What might get a public teacher fire, might make another professor seem like a very passionate and helpful person. Its pretty awesome. It does suck when you get a passionate professor who you disagree with, but its still an interesting experience to hear the arguments from the other side. I'm glad you had that experience
True, but in time I even found that they sometimes are really great people too, who just disagree passionately. I respect anyone who can also respect me. Disagreeing is just fine, as no 2 people on earth agree 100% everything. I bet university will be even better than college!
I'm going to college this fall to an art school, and I'm surprised myself at all the positive LGBT attitudes there. There once was a Gay-Straight Alliance, it sort of just fell apart because "they felt like it wasn't needed". Everyone felt totally comfortable with each other and could talk to one another openly. But they are also interested in starting it up again, as are quite a bit of the staff members I've talked to. One of the more interesting aspects was that, on our dorm/roommate questionnaire (small school) they actually told us to list our sexual orientation if we wanted to so they could partner us with someone non-homophobic or someone we wouldn't feel comfortable with. Needless to say, looks like it'll be some good years in college.
^ Love Abe quote, he cared about deaf so much he signed the papers so Gallaudet College (now university) could exist! MY school.
That's so cool to hear! Some people may say that being asked sexual orientation is a personal question but I would much rather that I was asked that in something like that. I wouldn't want people to ask me in person on the spot esp. in front of people, but for something like that in which you could not respond or lie, I would find it good. And that the school didn't need a gsa is a wonderful sign
You'll find yourself pleasantly surprised by the topics that teachers and faculty are willing to discuss in college. In high school, it's all about censorship: no talk about anything controversial, whether it's sexual orientation, sex, religion, racism, etc. In college - at least at my school in San Francisco - we talk about every topic possible in class. I've been in college for two years and it never fails that in almost every class I had, there's been discussion or mention of LGBT issues. I've had a sexuality class and sociology class, where it's a given that we talk about LGBT stuff, but even in my other classes like history, oral communications, politics, philosophy, labor laws, and all my English classes, we discuss LGBT things. It's great when teachers and all your classmates are open to talking about those things with no shame =) Good luck in college, and I hope that you find yourself having a similar experience as mine in your classes!
We were introduced to our gay student union right during orientation. It was nice to see my uni being that way about it, as opposed to my high school, which pretty much swept LGBT issues right under the rug. We also have a program where professors and staff can put a little sticker on their door or outside their office that means that they're supportive of LGBT issues. It's nice knowing that if you see the sticker, you can for sure talk openly.
That's interesting... because at my school the grad residence questionnaire didn't ask for orientation, it just gave a blank space underneath gender if you needed to put whatever. But, I didn't feel like I had to. There was a section that said that at this school students are expected to not be discriminating against gender, orientation, race, and what not. And if that isn't possible please explain why. So i like how it is less finding someone who is more open and accepting for your "condition". More like this is normal and expected, and is there a reason why you have to be a jerk. :icon_wink
I know at the university that I go to the professors are really open. We have some LGBT professors at my university. For one of the projects in my media writing class I did a multi-element article on the LGBT community. My university also has a LGBT center and a pride group. We did not have the sexual orientation question at my university either. If you have problems with a roommate, you can get another roommate.
I'm glad to hear! I don't like avoiding conversations about that type of stuff. Our high school would talk about racism and politics but not religion or LGBT.
