<p>pugmadkate, I am not “taking anyone to task” and neither is Marsian. It’s just that vague generalizations don’t help the discussion. Here’s a list of the “12 least LGBT-friendly colleges in the country,” according to the Princeton Review. The top three are religious and not in the South. Several are in the Northeast. Of the four that are in the South, three are in Texas and one in Virginia. You might note that two are in New England (including Boston College in MA) and none are in Mississippi.</p>
<p>Northeastern is one of several schools that offer gender neutral housing - this might be something to look into at the colleges you are considering.</p>
<p>The Princeton Review makes those lists for the schools included in their best college book. Liberty isn’t in normally in it.</p>
<p>Anyway BC certainly isn’t happy about being on the non-gay friendly list (and certainly not overjoyed about being on the little to no cross race/class interaction list either). Naturally they criticize PR’s methodology.</p>
<p>Would you be perfectly fine with him not wanting to room with someone who is of a different race than himself?</p>
<p>If all you know about someone is that they’re LGBT, and that makes them unworthy of being your roommate, then yes- it’s homophobia. But better the potential roommate know to prevent any awkwardness for the LGBT roommate. Not comfortable living with someone who can’t look beyond your sexuality.</p>
<p>There is something fundamentally different about rooming with someone of a different race, culture, nationality, etc., and rooming with someone who is gay. I roomed with people of all sorts of different backgrounds and loved the experiences, but once I roomed with a gay guy and it was a nightmare. He started hitting on me after the first week and after a couple of more weeks of repeated attempts by him to seduce me despite my complete and clear rejection of it, I requested a room change and got it. I had a friend who had a similar experience with a gay roommate (who had been closeted), though that was in an apartment and it was easy for him to just move out.</p>
<p>You can call it homophobia or whatever you want to call it, but if a young person has received unwelcome advances before from gay individuals and feels uncomfortable about it, I think they have every right to want a non-gay roommate.</p>
<p>“The top three are religious and not in the South. Several are in the Northeast. Of the four that are in the South, three are in Texas and one in Virginia. You might note that two are in New England (including Boston College in MA) and none are in Mississippi.”</p>
<p>But 8 schools on the list are religious. </p>
<p>“Hard to believe that Texas A&M would make that list but Liberty would not.”</p>
<p>Maybe at schools like Liberty there are no gay kids - it’s hard to be considered unfriendly if there is no one to be unfriendly towards.</p>
<p>austinareadad, your roommate’s behavior was inappropriate. And I would say the same about a co-ed living arrangement in which a guy was hitting on a female roommate (or vice versa). It happens, and it’s wrong if it continues after the recipient of the advances says “no.” But of course that doesn’t mean all gay people in same-sex dorms (or army barracks, or whatever) are looking to “seduce” their roommates. </p>
<p>OP, remember that this site has a search variable for LGBT-friendly schools. Even though my older child is not gay, this was important to us and we used it as a screen. Now the site has also added a liberal-conservative variable, which in many cases accomplishes the same outcome–but that wasn’t there when we were looking.</p>
<p>emilybee: I know. I was just pointing out various highlights of that survey.</p>