<p>Hi - I am hoping to find a college that really cares about LGBT issues - I had been planning on NYU - but now that I found out they are starting a campus in Abu Dhabi -where gay people are jailed, beaten and worse just for being gay- I don't think that I would ever go there. What can you tell me about Columbia?</p>
<p>hi rainbow - there was just a thread about this - please consider reading it first, if you have more questions, feel free to ask. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/936859-lgbt-life-columbia.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/936859-lgbt-life-columbia.html</a></p>
<p>and search for other threads.</p>
<p>one thing to add: columbia lgbt life is for the most part a ‘so what.’ it isn’t a big deal for folks, it isn’t necessarily all that activist, and definitely minimal backlash from community members about having openly gay members of sports teams, fraternities or religious a capella groups, spaces that are traditionally considered homophobic. equally this also means that gay students are just well integrated into the daily life of campus and though there are safe spaces like the donaldson lounge or resources through the multicultural office, i’d say the vast majority of gay students do not take advantage of them nor view them as necessary in their daily interactions. it is nice to know those spaces are available, but also to know that they are not the only bastions for community members.</p>
<p>Wait…90% of NYU kids are gay and you’re worried about them not being accepting?</p>
<p>If your reason is more ideological then you have to remember that a university is a business. They will do things that make them money and obviously NYU thinks a satellite campus will make them money.</p>
<p>If you’re worried about being in Abu Dhabi, then you have nothing to worry about. NYU’s main campus is still in the vicinity of Washington Square Park, and the student body and the campus and surrounding area are still incredibly LGBT-friendly. If it’s an ideological hangup, as Skraylor believes, then you should know that Columbia has a Global Center in Amman, Jordan, which isn’t much more tolerant of homosexuality than Abu Dhabi. Also, you should make sure that you don’t commit the Orientalist sin of assuming that Western cultural and sexual mores are necessarily superior to those in Arabic societies like Abu Dhabi. While the sexual repression in Abu Dhabi and other countries in the mideast must be rectified and sexual freedom must be accepted, it cannot be accomplished by simply replacing the indigenous culture and values with Western culture and values.</p>
<p>Is this flame? Why do people who are unlikely to get into Columbia not focus on improving their applications and instead consider irrelevant crap like whether gays get beaten in the Emirates.</p>
<p>If your reason is ideological as skraylor said, then don’t go to college lol.
Cornell, Northwestern, Texas A&M, Carnegie Mellon, Virginia Commonwealth, NYU, Georgetown… all have campuses in the middle east (Qatar, UAE …). Many other colleges have study abroad sites there too. Harvard is associated with a medical school in Dubai, MIT is advising an environmental intitute in Abu Dhabi for 10million $ a year, etc, etc…<br>
@Columbia2002: Good point haha, to some extent.</p>