<p>I just wanted to hear some feedback about how Gay friendly UNC-Chapel Hill is, about the community and events there, and how accepting the student body is. Is it a "liberal" environment?</p>
<p>Yes. I have many criticisms of UNCCH; homophobia isn’t one of them.</p>
<p>There are a couple of weekly bar nights (though recently infested with straight girls, which annoys me greatly), and a generally tolerant community.</p>
<p>It isn’t paradise, but it’s about as accepting a place as you’ll find, I think.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that it’s very liberal at UNC. I’m also gay lol</p>
<p>Let’s hope so!!! 
I’ve met some of their LGBT community and they are amazing people, can’t wait to be apart of a larger community :D!!!</p>
<p>I would imagine that there are a few clusters of intolerant people, and more of them than at other top schools simply because of the Bible Belt. But I know several gays at UNC, and they have no complaints about homophobia.</p>
<p>As a whole, I would say yes. No matter where you go there are bound to be close minded people, and let’s not forget we are technically in the South here, but by and large I would say students at Carolina are pretty accepting.</p>
<p>You might have heard about an incident few weeks ago about where a gay student reported that he had been the victim of a hate crime on campus. The report was ultimately determined to be false, but before the university officially gave a response to the incident, there was a huge outcry by the student population in support of the student and against homophobia at UNC. Seeing how Carolina students responded made me proud to be a Tar Heel.</p>
<p>Also, UNC is host to an annual conference called the South East regional Unity Conference which is “…an annual gathering of progressive lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer identified people and their allies in the Southeast.” The event always has a huge turn out.</p>
<p>I certainly hope they are gay-friendly.</p>
<p>I’ve been trying to find a gay roommate (I’m gay) and it’s beginning to seem impossible. Haha.</p>
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<p>It’s not ‘technically’ the South… we’re three states in!</p>
<p>Keepittoyourself is geographically correct that “we’re three states in” the South. However, the key is her prior post, where she says, “I have many criticisms of UNCCH; homophobia isn’t one of them…It isn’t paradise, but it’s about as accepting a place as you’ll find, I think.” </p>
<p>Keepittoyourself is exactly correct. As evidence, the town of Chapel Hill – politically – has pretty much NOTHING in common North Carolina, or with the South in general. The reason is that the town is totally dominated by UNC-Chapel Hill. (Consider that Chapel Hill has only 51,519 residents, and UNC-Chapel Hill has 29,390 enrolled students; and, that’s not even counting the thousands of UNC-Chapel employees.) </p>
<p>Because of the UNC-Chapel Hill influence, Chapel Hill is one of the most liberal towns in the United States, and is generally considered equivalent to Berkeley, CA (UC – Berkeley), Boulder, CO (University of Colorado), Madison, WI (University of Wisconsin), and Ann Arbor, MI (University of Michigan). Someone I have known for decades, who lives in Chapel Hill, always responds as follows to people who ask what it is like to reside in North Carolina, “I wouldn’t know. I live in Chapel Hill.” </p>
<p>Still skeptical? Consider the following two fun facts:</p>
<p>1) From the Town of Chapel Hill website:</p>
<p>“Mark Kleinschmidt has served on the Chapel Hill Town Council since December 2001. He is Chapel Hill’s first openly gay Mayor and when elected to the Council, was the fifth openly-gay North Carolinian to be elected in the state’s history.”</p>
<p>[Town</a> of Chapel Hill : Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt](<a href=“http://www.ci.chapel-hill.nc.us/index.aspx?page=97]Town”>http://www.ci.chapel-hill.nc.us/index.aspx?page=97)</p>
<p>2) From the UNC-Chapel Hill Website:</p>
<p>“Whenever Chapel Hill, North Carolina elected a new mayor, few people outside of the small college town paid much attention. But when the 1969 mayoral race came to a close, newspapers and magazines from around the state, nation, and world reported the news. Time and Newsweek ran profiles of the new mayor and his photograph appeared prominently in a West German newspaper. Why all the fuss? When the votes were counted and the election was certified, on May 6, 1969, Howard Lee became the first African American mayor elected in a predominantly white southern town since Reconstruction.”</p>
<p>[North</a> Carolina Collection-This Month in North Carolina History](<a href=“http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/ref/nchistory/may2004/]North”>http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/ref/nchistory/may2004/)</p>
<p>Still skeptical? I have plenty of other fun facts, both about UNC-Chapel Hill proper, and Chapel Hill the town.</p>