Does it really get better in college?

I'm a trans kid who goes to a school where everyone looks at me like I'm dirt. They are angry that I even exist. I'm just something to laugh at, and that's all I've ever been throughout all my years in school. I'm young as fuck, and I'm already convince that hate is just something that all humans have deep within them. I shouldn't be thinking that until I'm having a midlife crisis or something! But what can I say? My childhood was stolen from me. I just can't wait til I graduate, go to a college far away from everyone, and then what? From what I heard, college campuses are places where you can be yourself, find your group and just live your life. Even the people in my school who always speak out against bullying will happily join in when it comes to making my life hard. Even people in the LGBT community hate me. What's a bisexual transgender guy going to do when he's shunned by the community that's supposed to support him? That's messed up. But from what I've heard, on college campuses, there are support groups for people like me, I'll have independence so that my parents will never be able to make me feel like a guilty and horrible person again, and people are actually not crazy assholes. But is it true? Will I ever find acceptance? Does it even matter if I do at this point? Bullies have already done brutal and irreversable damage to me, so why would it matter? But I'm not gonna lie, being accepted is all I could ever want in life.

 

Hey Random Ross 1,

From my experience, Michigan is still generally a hard place to grow up LGBTQ. But most colleges/universities offer a much more accepting environment. (And, of course, compared to the stupid games that most teens play in high school, most college campuses are much more accepting.)

Do you plan to go to college in-State or somewhere else, if I may ask?

 

It depends on the college and its location.

I will be attending Portland State University soon and that has a huge trans community and goes out their way to make sure trans people feel welcome. There application alone blew me away simply because it gave me the option of choosing trans male as my gender and saying that i am gay.

A lot of larger universities are pretty progressive, more so if the start they are located in is as well.
Religious colleges will not be as accepting.
Community colleges and technical.colleges can be a hit or miss.

My experience is is that bullying in general gets better in college. Certainly I have gone from being bullied a lot in high school to not at all in college.
But I'm also not out in my current technical college, while I will be at Portland State.


My advice is to research colleges. See what they offer in the form of LGBT support and resources. Go on forums and ask about these places. Search the webs for the top LGBT friendly universities.

But also keep in the mind the cost of each place.

I'm actually moving to Portland to become a resident of Oregon simply so that I can get in state tuition. I got lucky in being able to do that.


If you like some help I would be glad assist.

 

I'm going to be attending community college in a rural town. There is an LGBT+ club where it is, but everyone is a redneck so hopefully it will get better when I start taking classes. I just need fellow LGBT friends to talk to, so I can feel safer where I am. Once I graduate i'll be transferring to a more of a city so It will be more accepting.

 

Oh hell yes, college is better.

Well, I can't speak for how much better it will be for someone like you where you live, but I was a bit of a nerd in school and every last bit of bullying evaporated when I went to college. I was mediocre in high school. In college, I thrived. My GPA immediately jumped up by one whole point and stayed there.

And that was just at a community college, to start off. The key difference is that college is voluntary. If you see someone there, they probably want to be there. Closed-mindedness is a crutch for lazy thinkers, and college repels lazy thinkers, because the last thing they want to do is pay to learn. They think it's useless.

So yeah, it won't be perfect, but college will probably be better than whatever you've had so far!