I overheard some very bright high school LGBT students talking about if Emory and Atlanta is LGBT friendly but I didn’t say anything so I decided to post here in hopes of them seeing it. The answer to both is YES.
For LGBT students, there is an extra variable that factors into if a certain college is a good fit and of course that being the level of LGBT friendliness and inclusion on and near campus. I’ve heard and read nothing but great things from LGBT students at Emory so if LGBT friendliness and culture is important … Emory and Atlanta gets an A+. And also Emory and Atlanta are very liberal leaning which is great news for the overwhelming majority of LGBT people.
Emory is very different than the other Methodist Episcopal affiliated universities (i.e. SMU in Dallas) that has a reputation of being very conservative and anti-LGBT so keep that in mind. Not all Methodist Episcopal affiliated universities are the same … Emory is the best one for many reasons.
Some pertinent links I found about LGBT life at Emory and Atlanta:
https://www.atlantamagazine.com/news-culture-articles/real-queer-america-author-samantha-allen-on-why-atlanta-is-the-best-city-in-the-country-for-the-lgbtq-community/
https://news.emory.edu/stories/2014/08/er_lgbt_campus_pride_top_50/campus.html
https://news.emory.edu/stories/2014/08/er_lgbt_campus_pride_top_50/campus.html
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/emory-university/1183052-gay-life-and-acceptance-at-emory.html
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122867548
@NuScholar : Do folks outside the south still project southern stereotypes on to Atlanta? I just wonder why this question is commonly asked even today. I thought Atlanta’s dramatically increased media and cultural visibility would kind of rid of some of that. It retains a somewhat southern vibe in terms of there being some friendliness left, but generally it is quite different even from other large/decent sized southern cities (Though it may not look like it from a plane. I miss all the trees! lol).
Interestingly, anyone who is lgbt and interested in something like healthcare and public health, should just go to somewhere like Emory or somewhere in Atlanta. Atlanta is a weird place that makes it excellent for education and advocacy in key areas. Doing very well economically, starting to get serious about urbanization, but battles high income inequality such that it is ultimately an epicenter of increasingly extreme success as well as being at the extrema for the ills and challenges of urban life in the U.S (for example, yes, poor lgbt folks, who are often black or minority still get infected with HIV at very high rates, especially in the south/metro Atlanta):
https://news.emory.edu/features/2018/05/aids-atl/index.html
The public health school also apparently is hosting this conference (saw it on twitter):
https://sph.emory.edu/news/news-release/2019/04/national-lgbtq-health-conference.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=
So many reasons to be in Atlanta both if you are lgbt or like to be an advocate or supporter of that community.
@NuScholar Thank you so much!!