College asks about student's orientation...

What do you guys think about this one? Would you answer it? Do you think this opens opportunities of discrimination directed towards heterosexuals?

 

I think it's inappropriate. Why should it matter? You're going there to learn, seriously. And what would be the point of it, anyway? College applications should be just that - college applications. They shouldn't include pointless questions such as, "Do you like TV dinners? Because you'll be eating a lot of them!!" They don't ask children going to school if they have crushes on boys or girls, do they? Or if they like being the gender they currently are? Utterly ridiculous.

 

In a word - unconstitutional. Or if it's not, it should be. Regardless of if it's optional, if a person refuses to answer or marks prefer not to say, it's going to indicate possibly that they might be gay, which could lead to discrimination against that person, whether they're gay or not. Total fail.

 

I'm skeptical of this but only because it's the church of christ and it's a private school. I'm pretty sure that if you answered yes or prefer not to say, they could reject your app. I'm not 100% sure. Public schools definitely can't discriminate on that basis, but private schools might be able to, idk. So, that's shitty. Yeah.

But in general, if this was a different school, I'd say that maybe it's not about discrimination at all. Isn't this the same thing as asking someone's race? In any other school I'd think maybe it was probably some misguided attempt at trying to see how much "diversity" the campus has or trying to "increase diversity".

EDIT: and now that I look at the article closer, that is exactly what they're saying they're trying to do. so, maybe they are? I guess I'm going to try not to jump to conclusions that they're discriminating just based on this alone. But the Church of Christ's website says that homosexuality is a lifestyle choice and it's unnatural. ON THE OTHER HAND, I went to a catholic school for a while that had an active GSA on campus...you never know.

 

Discrimination against gay people isn't unconstitutional. Nor is it prohibited by federal law.

 

It's unconstitutional, it just hasn't been declared as such yet.

 

This.

And only some states actually have sexual orientation under their discrimination laws.

 

Why any gay kid would skip going to a secular, liberal campus to go to a place like Elmhurst is beyond me.

That being said, I don't mind people asking college kids if they're gay as long as the reason they're asking is because they're trying to give out a sumptuous LGBT scholarship. Though in a place like Elmhurst, I highly doubt that is the case.

 

I think it's 1 of those things that you just need to see play out. It may be there so they can discriminate against them or it may be there so they can prove they are diverse and therefore attract more attention and possible funding.

Because it is not a mandatory question it gives the impression that they are not trying to force anything but i don't know..

For some reason i just think,
No=Straight
Yes=Gay
Prefer not to say=Closeted


Can only speculate on the real point of adding it but yeah.

 

the college I am applying to asks if there are any aspects about myself that can contribute to the campus's diversity. I am going to put down my sexuality, and my experince as a student leader at my current college for the campus's LGBT and allied community.

The question is not unconstitutional, but discrimination is.

 

Will Poor Students Act Gay For Emherst’s LGBT Scholarship? / Queerty

 

I personally think this is an amazing thing since universities would be able to finally have an estimate of just how many LGBT students they have. That can work wonders when you start trying to get scholarship for LGBT and implement other groups or resources that will help LGBT students. Also, it can give people a specific number of how many LGBT people are in the school and they could feel less alone.

On the other hand, yes, it could be used as a tool to discriminate against students that check the box, but from the article and what I have read it doesn't seem like they intended to be that way at all.

Either way, I would definitely check the box . Even if they used it to discriminate I rather go to a crappy college that is accepting of me than to the best university out there and have to hide who I am.

I think you searched for the wrong church. They are talking about the United Church of Christ which is actually one of the most accepting churches out there

 

Hahaha oh wow yeah, then this is a good thing! Scratch all my previous hesitancy.

 

Nobody knows what information is collected specifically, it could well be collected in an anonymous way for all any of writers of these articles know... Also, no-one knows what the information collected is used for at all.

People getting angry are jumping the gun, especially since there is an option to decline to answer the question at all. Find out a little bit more before going postal.

 

I think they are asking in a way that may actually increase a gay kid's chances- because they want to 'diversify' the campus. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but it is interesting for sure.

 

All accusations of discrimination aside, it really shouldn't be offensive at all. How is it any different from asking about gender and age and race? It's just another fact about myself. Obviously there would be some problems with it today, but I don't think the idea of asking about it is inherently offensive.

 

I'm actually not that far away from Elmhurst College (really close) and I personally think that people are getting over-defensive here and are assuming that this is going to be used in a discriminatory way which is not necessarily the case. I just see this as another question that describes me as a person, such as my race, age, religion and etc.

Honestly, this is one of the places that I'm considering transferring to and the fact that they decided to include this question on their application makes me want to attend there more.

I really don't think that this will be used as a tool for discrimination, but I guess we'll see. I'm currently in the process of a filling out an application and I know I'm pretty much guranteed to get in (3.85 college gpa, 32 ACT, 6th in highschool class, tons of AP credit, etc). So if for some reason I don't get accepted, then I'll start to believe that it's discriminatory. But I refuse to do so until I see some actual proof.

 

Oh, it is a scholarship. Go Elmhurst. Way to join the 21st century. :icon_bigg:

(Actually, I hear they have a pretty active LGBT community on campus?)

 

Don't really like the idea. This would be yet another thing I'd lie on just to get ahead.

 

oh no guys here comes the reverse discrimination D: the gays are getting better treatment than the straights next thing you know heterosexuals will be in camps and people will be changing to gay so they can get scholarships and people will stop reproducing. It's obviously part of our progression towards the end of the world in 2012 D: