<p>I was wondering if someone could please tell me how gay friendly some of the LACs are. I am wondering about Bates, Colby, and Kenyon in particular, but please feel free to mention any others you are aware of. I am mainly looking at schools in the Northeast and do not see myself going west of Ohio. Please only answer if you know a school is gay friendly; do not just include it because it happens to have a gay organization. Even though organizations and clubs can be good indicators, it is not uncommon these days for a school to have a gay organization that more closely resembles a support group and a student body that isn't really all that tolerant.</p>
<p>I hear Sarah Lawrence has a large LGBTQ community. That’s all I know, though.</p>
<p>Hampshire College, Reed College.
There is Princeton Review’s college rankings, too, which has a list for gay friendliness too. Free.</p>
<p>I think Vassar tops that list, and any LACs that are known to be liberal like Beloit, Clark, etc</p>
<p>The problem with LACs is that they have [tiny</a> populations](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064907767-post9.html]tiny”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064907767-post9.html) and tend to be in isolated areas. </p>
<p>Often the best options for an LGBT student are LACs
[ul][<em>]large enough to support a sizable community (e.g. Oberlin)
[</em>]part of a larger consortium (Claremonts, Amherst/Hampshire)
[li]in or near urban areas (e.g. Emerson, Occidental, Eugene Lang)[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>As always, I recommend the following guide. It’s about 5 years old and thus a bit dated but still a good source. Your public library might have a copy.</p>
<p>[The</a> Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Advocate-College-Guide-LGBT-Students/dp/155583857X]The”>http://www.amazon.com/Advocate-College-Guide-LGBT-Students/dp/155583857X)
[The</a> Advocate college guide for LGBT students (Book, 2006) [WorldCat.org]](<a href=“http://www.worldcat.org/title/advocate-college-guide-for-lgbt-students/oclc/70875301&referer=brief_results]The”>The Advocate college guide for LGBT students | WorldCat.org)</p>
<p>The [Campus</a> Climate Index website](<a href=“http://www.campusclimateindex.org/]Campus”>http://www.campusclimateindex.org/) is another good source.</p>
<p>It’s also worth contacting the [LGBT</a> centers on campus](<a href=“http://www.lgbtcampus.org/directory/]LGBT”>http://www.lgbtcampus.org/directory/) for detailed info if you’re interested in specific schools.</p>
<p>Warbler-would you say a LAC with a student body of 5,000 or so is significantly better than one with roughly 2,000 students? Plus, do you happen to know of any of the colleges in the Advocate guide you posted? My town’s public library is very small and does not seem to have any gay themed books whatsoever. It’s fine if you don’t though.</p>
<p>
Depends on the schools in question. Often you can have a large school (say, Texas A&M) that doesn’t have an out population noticeably larger than a much smaller school (say, Stanford or Penn). For a female, a single-sex school like Smith arguably has roughly the same raw number of L/B females as a slightly larger university like Tufts. All things being equal, however, a larger school generally is “better” in the sense that there’s likely a larger LGBT community. </p>
<p>I’m fairly familiar with a reasonably large and very liberal public (UNC), and the LGBT community even there can be a little claustrophobic at times, so I would imagine this holds at least as true for small LACs. I haven’t attended one, admittedly, but I’ve heard some complaints from students who have. Acceptance at LACs is far from an issue, of course, and there’s undoubtedly no better place to be out, but the dating pool is often just a bit scarce.</p>
<p>
Unfortunately, I don’t have my copy with me. There’s a list of 20 of the 100 [in</a> this review](<a href=“Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer News & Politics”>Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer News & Politics), but they’re mostly universities.</p>
<p>as far as the schools you mentioned, to my knowledge Kenyon is the most gay-friendly. Bates and Colby are probably more “tolerant” than the average school, but I doubt they’re ideal.</p>
<p>these are good suggestions:
also Wesleyan, Vassar.
also Swarthmore/Haverford
also Macalester, probably Goucher, Reed, Sarah Lawrence (close enough).</p>
<p>Brandeis is a university but close enough to a LAC and is both large enough to support a sizable community and not far from a major city. also Bard.</p>
<p>Bard is another possibility.</p>
<p>Swarthmore, definitely. Any school in the Five Colleges (Amherst, Hampshire, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Umass).</p>
<p>I third Reed. It’s known to be very LGBTQ friendly, in Portland, excellent academics.</p>