"LGBT housing" in colleges

There's a little of that here, but mostly i think it's best to not "segregate" ourselves like that. The basic dorms will reflect the student population as a whole - a few to several LGBT on every floor, and no one will treat you differently.

 

I always figured they did it to keep them from housing LGBT students with potentially homophobic people, for some congeniality. It's an option at my school, even though we've never really had a problem with homophobia.

My roommate is straight and doesn't know I'm bi, but I don't think she'd care. We both get along, and that matters more than having the same orientation.

 

No big deal at my school. I had a bi roommate. I'm bi. My male best friend (who is gay) and I shared a bed when we visited each other. I guess we had a form of LGBT housing...but I just called it my sorority.

 

If you're looking in the United States you should check out University of Colorado at Boulder. It's amazing how much they offer the LGBT community and how much support you get from everyone.

 

Highly doubtful of that. Nobody at a respectable college should be in the business of keeping the gays in a corner.

I think that the only way a school can be homogeneous is if it is homogeneously diverse. GLBT housing shouldn't be any different from regular housing other than there is a higher concentration of GLBT-friendly individuals.

 

My school didn't have it as an option. I think it differs from school to school , state to state. However, we do have a lgbtq club and it is accepted and doesn't seem to have an issue.

I feel like they should have to worry about putting lgbtq students with other lgbtq.

 

LGBT housing sounds amazing. But I am doubtful. Isn't it just 'ghetto-isation' whereas integration is much healthier sounding.

 

I would suspect that LGBT housing was set up some years ago as an attempt to provide safe spaces for LGBT students to live while being open about themselves. Universities generally don't move at lightning speed on much of anything.

As to whether such is necessary or the best option...it probably varies. Younger people seem to care a lot less about orientation these days then they may have when these housing units were set up. Attitudes in this area seem to be changing quickly. At the same time, I've certainly seen a fair number of posts here in which people express anxiety about whether to come out to a college roommate or be out in college in general. A safe space where they can be themselves might be just what some folks want. Or the whole thing could fade away as not needed in a few years.

Todd

 

Here's what I know. Large universities have different dorms. Their published information speaks to the different missions of some of the dorms - emphasis on studying, emphasis on culture, emphasis on alcohol and drug free, emphasis on assimilating out of the area and non-traditional students, etc. Then, certain majors like certain dorms. There was one undergrad dorm while I was in grad school that, when talked about, people would say "Oh, yeah, a lot of (so and so) majors live there ... yeah, a lot of gays." That could have been accurate, and so this reputation spread and GLBT students chose it because it was more relaxed than dorms that were prepping people for fraternities and sororities. I lived in a quiet dorm. I wouldn't have had it any other way.