<p>I was recently accepted to Rice, and I was wondering if there is an active LGBTQ population. I know it's in Houston and such, but is the campus pretty accepting? Also, is there much of presence of the gay population or is the school just too small? Thanks!</p>
<p>I cant say anything about the rice campus, but ill be attending next year, and im fine if youre LGBTQ…</p>
<p>does that help? :P</p>
<p>That’s nice to know 
Are you attending Owl Days coming up?</p>
<p>I’m not sure what you mean by “I know it’s in Houston and such,” because Houston has a pretty active and strong gay community, and we have a gay mayor. So I’m going to assume you meant that you assume that Rice is accepting of gay people because it’s in Houston.</p>
<p>Besides that, any non-religious prestigious private university is going to be socially progressive, and Rice is no exception. There are many gay students, and a lot of people come out while at Rice because they find that it is such an open place. Many students date other Rice students, but my roommate explicitly chooses not to date Rice students specifically because the campus is too small, and if you have a messy break-up, everybody knows about it. That’s what happens when your campus advocacy club (Queers and Allies) is also your dating pool. Some students are fine with this and are very happy dating Rice students, but I think it’s more common among gay students than straight students to go off-campus for dating and/or hookups.</p>
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<p>Yes, unless plans go horribly wrong i should be there :D</p>
<p>I’ll treat your question as a two part-er:
- General acceptance on campus - amazing.
- Gay dating life - eh. What you make of it.</p>
<p>(just to give you some background, I graduated from Rice last year and am openly gay)</p>
<p>1) Rice is amazingly accepting. In my entire time at Rice, I don’t think that there was a single instance where I felt like anyone was judging me, being unaccepting, or viewing me differently because I’m gay.
The GLBT association on campus isn’t that active, but I always felt that it was because most gay people were too involved with other activities on campus. The college system encourages you to get involved with your college and make friends with others in your college, resulting in a much more diverse friend-base than you’d have a lot of places. As a result, there’s a less cohesive gay social scene than most places (Something I really liked; I love other gay people, but a social scene and friend base that consists entirely of other gay people would drive me mad) which results in less involvement in GLBT organizations. I was never involved, most of my gay friends weren’t either. One interesting note, two years ago, two of the nine college presidents (probably the highest profile student positions on campus) were openly gay.</p>
<p>2) Gay dating life is what you make of it. It’s a fairly small student population - 3000 students, 1500 of each gender, say 5%-10% are openly gay (making that number up, I have no actual stats) resulting in 75-150 people, filter out the number that are not your type, and it’s not actually that large of a number. That said, plenty of gay guys I’ve known at Rice have had no issues finding guys to date. It just feels a bit incestuous eventually. </p>
<p>Rice is in the middle of a huge city, but Houston has a fairly low college-aged population. I never dated any non-Rice students while I was an undergrad - most Rice students keep busy enough with things on campus (school, extra-curriculars, and campus social life) that they don’t ever branch out into the city that much.</p>
<p>So in summary - absolutely amazing for gay students, except for the dating scene.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input everyone. I greatly appreciate it! And as for the “I know it’s in Houston” - my fault. I was operating under the assumption that Houston was perhaps more conservative/less accepting of the LGBTQ population. It is great to hear that this is not really the case.</p>
<p>Similar to what cowking says, I’m probably going to Rice next year and I’m gay. Having gone to a very, very conservative high school, I am very excited for this.</p>
<p>@Avalanche Lily, I’m in the same boat!</p>
<p>I’m almost certain Q and A (Queers and Allies) will have an event on Owl Days. </p>
<p>If you’re gay, I wouldn’t count on finding the love of your life or a slew of hookups at Rice. But that goes for straight people, too. However, Rice kids as a whole don’t discriminate against gay people. There are definitely some people who don’t feel comfortable around gay people, but they’re not vocal about it, and that’s definitely going to be the case at any school. But yeah, you can lead a normal life at Rice no matter what sexual orientation you are. =]</p>
<p>@ Avalanche Lily et al. Same here, fags unite!</p>
<p>I learned in the Sociology of Houston class that Houston has the fourth largest gay population in the US. The “gay” district analogous to Castro in San Franscisco is Montross which is very close to campus. Many assume Rice is very conservative which sometimes is like a code-word for judgmental, but this is not the case. The campus is moderate. There are many liberal-minded and conservative-minded classmates who genuinely respected each other who eat dinner with each other engaging in civil conversations about politics, race and religion, everything. </p>
<p>I describe the general attitude towards GLBT as indifferent not polarizing. Meaning that if you are out, no one cares.</p>
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<p>It’s the fourth most populous city in the US, so that wouldn’t surprise me.</p>
<p>I went to a drag show fundraiser at pub the other night if that tells you anything.</p>
<p>Gay people are accepted at Rice, no one judges you or anything. In fact, Rice in general is accepting of pretty much everybody. </p>
<p>Also, Houston has an openly gay mayor… so basically, you shouldn’t worry about being accepted.</p>
<p>Is there any other gay dating site where I can find out who to date with at Rice or in Houston, like planetromeo?</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is really the best place to ask. I think any large gay dating site would work for you, although, most guys on these sights aren’t looking for serious relationships.</p>