UNC, UVA, Wake Forest, Emory, Vanderbilt, GW, George Mason
Maybe GW is the most friendly? Wake Forest would be the least LGBT friendly. It is #12 on the list below:
You can also do a search on https://colleges.niche.com/rankings/
Emory is extremely LGBT friendly.
Guilford comes to mind.
george mason university is very friendly. I don’t think you would have a problem at GW, UVA, or UNC. 'i don’t have personal experiences with those schools so idk if I’m much help. Most universities/colleges in Virginia are LGBT friendly. I went to school in Virginia and so did most of my friends.
Most students at most select colleges will be very tolerant of LGBT issues. Generally the schools with little or no Greek life will be more LGBT friendly. Not an absolute gauge but a rough guide.
We live in NC and have a daughter in a big state university. She has never heard about any anti-gay bias. Still, her sisters in high school cannot wait to graduate and leave the South for college.
@PetulaClark I’d love to leave the south, but I just know I would be miserable in the cold and it would be too far from home
Yes, my youngest daughter wants to live where it snows. Wonder how long that will last? But I can think of some smaller schools that might be of interest: New College in Florida, Richmond, and Hendrix in Arkansas.
Recommending UNC here. On another note, UNC Asheville and UNC Greensboro would be great safeties and probably offer a ton of aid. Guilford is a great option for a LAC and NC A&T isn’t too bad either if HBCU’s are your thing. UNC Wilmington ain’t too bad, but it’s like NC’s Northern Cal so take that as you will. I’d stay away from Western, Wake Forest, East Carolina, UNC Pembroke, UNC Charlotte and (maybe) NC State. I haven’t heard great things from NCSU but Raleigh is pretty LGBT friendly.
@WiliyamMSL Really about ECU? Several of my friends go there for grad school and they never had a problem/saw bigot behavior towards the lgbt community.
@FluentInCarbs It’s less about ECU and more about Greenville. I lived in pirate country. ECU is pretty good for LGBT, but I never felt safe in Greenville. East NC just isn’t usually the best place for the LGBT community. Out of the schools I listed that I wouldn’t recommend, ECU would be the best option next to Charlotte.
@WiliyamMSL Ah ok makes sense then!
You can search by college on Campus Pride: https://www.campusprideindex.org
Atlanta and Houston both have vibrant LGBTQ scenes. Houston’s mayor, Annise Parker, was out and proud - she is married to another woman and they have kids.
So I would look to both of the cities for schools and employment in the South.
Houston has lots of colleges: Rice (southern Ivy, STEM, Tier 1, happy students), University of Houston (Tier 1), University of Houston-Downtown (open admissions), Texas Southern University (HBCU with a pharmacy and law school), plus Baylor Med, UT med, lots of undergraduate nursing, biomed, PT programs as Houston has the world’s largest medical center. There are Catholic and Baptist schools as well, but maybe not such a great match.
Wake Forest is known to be pretty conservative. I would avoid that one.
I strongly second the recommendations for UNC Asheville and Appalachian State but if OP is uncomfortable with cold weather, those might not be top choices. Neither gets Minnesota cold but they aren’t year-round flip-flop schools.
Eckard College in Tampa, FL is very liberal.
I don’t recommend App State. It’s LGBT friendly but it’d be better if gay students actually went there.
It’s worth mentioning that due to Emory’s Atlanta area location, the potential dating pool for non hetero people is much larger than some hyper LGBT friendly rural, isolated LACs.
If the OP is in range for UVa and Vandy, look at the University of Texas, too.