How is it being LGBT in college? I'm just wondering because I'm doing a lot of stuff for getting ready to apply this fall. So what has your experience been? Thanks
Great. Everyone seems to be very accepting. But, the majority of outed gay guys are either very slutty or very flamboyant. That's only my college though.
My experience is not too great. I don't know any LGBT people at my college. The LGBT club is disbanded, I believe, due to lack of popularity. But I'm also not out to anyone yet and I commute. Both situations makes it that much more difficult for me to find other people to relate to >_< That's just my experience, but I'm sure other college students have better ones to tell.
When you are looking at schools, I would look and see if they have good LGBT programs. I would see if they have some type of LGBT group and just what they have to offer for you. I know at the school I go to, we have a Pride group. We also have a LGBT center where you can go and talk to somebody if you need to. The school is also good at dealing with dorm issues. My school also has a LGBT studies minor. My experience in college has been pretty cool. I have had a couple of bad experiences. My first was a homophobic roommate. She moved out of the room pretty quickly though. My second was that I had some kids yell "She's a lesbian she has no soul." My RHD heard them and made them have to go to a ally training session.
It hasn't been a problem for me at all. I'm out to plenty at college, and it's really a complete non-issue. I like the environment of my university in that they take more of a social libertarian approach to things, so there's no patronizing liberalism about LGBT issues, and people just accept you for who you are. My only problem is that most of the gay people that I've met who are out aren't people I relate to at all. I just need to give that some time because I go to a school of 50,000 students, so I know there have to be tons of good guys out there. I like going to a large school for that reason.
I go to a large, public university, and so far my experiences with the school have been pretty good. The dorms are organized into neighborhoods, and each neighborhood has its own LGBT group. There is also a campus-wide support group, as well as a resource center where you can go to hang out or talk about your problems. I think they also have a program for entering freshmen in their first semester, but I didn't go to it because I didn't know I was gay first semester. Everyone who knows I'm LGBT has been really accepting. I imagine that this is typical for large universities, though there are probably exceptions.
I go to a relatively small private Christian university ran by the United Church of Christ and I haven't had any bad experiences. The GSA is actually the biggest group on campus and they always put on a ton of different events each year. They do drag shows and take trips to pride parades throughout Ohio and stuff like that. Last semester they did The Vagina Monologues to raise money for a rape and victim crisis shelter downtown. We don't have a LGBT resource center unfortunately but I heard it's in the works, and my school recently added LGBT and Gender Studies to the curriculum. My university is mostly female though. There's like a 7/3 female to male population ratio here, there's lesbians everywhere. It's a lesbian paradise. I've met plenty of gay guys though, and I went on a few casual dates with them, just to various coffee shops and stuff around campus, and no one looked twice, so. There's a lot of foreign students here from Japan and the Middle East, so it's a really eclectic culture blend. I once saw two butch lesbians talking to some girls in niqabs at a cafe and I will never forget it. You're free to be yourself without worrying about anyone caring, because they're doing it too.
I would say that most colleges are a great environment for LGBT students; of course, there are exceptions in campuses that are located in less open-minded places. For me, I go to college in SF and everyone is gay-friendly here. I haven't met any homophobes. Everyone is pretty liberal to extremely liberal. Everyone here is very different and there's so much diversity, yet everyone seems to find their group of friends to relate to and hang out with. As stupid as it seems, I'm still too afraid to come out, even in such an accepting environment. Most people I know who are gay are totally out and proud. Straight people want gay friends and have gay friends; even the straight guys hang out with gay guys sometimes or are at least really friendly to them. We have PRIDE week celebrations and PRIDE prom and such and LGBT clubs. You should find college a great place to come out as long as you're in an accepting city/state.
I go to a school that Playboy once ranked as the #4 party school in North America. Now you'd think that most people here would be jocky, beer-guzzling, douchey heterosexuals, and you're right. However I am the homosexual counterpart of that so I fit right in with the heteros :badgrin: During my first semester, I was involved in the Pride group on campus, but I left it for two reasons: 1) when the suggestion of taking action to eradicate homophobia on campus was brought up, the leaders of the group said that they didn't want to be confrontational yet couldn't find another way to deal with it and 2) they bullied me and some of my friends into leaving (me because I could pass for straight, my floormate and his boyfriend because they started dating and members of the club wanted sleep with them, my genderqueer friend for being genderqueer, and my ace friend for being ace). I would also like to make the point that this group is despised on campus by the Ally group (who do sensitivity training for RAs and Sophs that will be living in residences to help out frosh) and GetReal (a program to educate people about gender/sexuality minorities).
