Gay students at Pepperdine University

<p>:-S </p>

<p>I get that a lot. </p>

<p>@Shrinkrap: Thank you so much for helping me out. I wish I would have never spent money applying, sending scores, and spending time and stress on Pepp! If only, if only. Was and is your daughter religious or conservative? Also, since your son is at Loyola, do you know if it’s conservative or homophobic like Pepp, or at least if they have a lot of gay students (specifically male)?</p>

<p>How could you know so little about Pepperdine before you chose to apply? You had no clue of its historical ties to a particular denomination or that it fancied itself as still promoting Biblical teachings and principles? I can hardly believe you even looked at the website. Who makes such decisions with such blind ignorance?</p>

<p>You should cross Pepperdine off of your list, and not because it is, as you mistakenly believe, “homophobic” or you buy into the ridiculous idea that others have stated here that Pepperdine is going to try to knock the gay out of you. You should cross Pepperdine off of your list because you need to go to a school where you can fully express your homosexuality. I am still not clear on the purpose of people always telling me or telling the world that they are homosexual. Exactly what does that bring to the table and what am I supposed to do with that information? But that is for another thread.</p>

<p>Pepperdine is, within the world of those who worship in congregations with “Church of Christ” on the signs, extremely liberal with barely a tie to the denomination, and, in many ways, barely a tie to the Bible Yes, there is still a connection, and that is because there are still many donors who give to the university based on the belief that the university is promoting Christian values. The number of students who attend Pepperdine and identify themselves as members of Churches of Christ is extremely small. My son could have received a ton of money from Pepperdine just because they need to keep a few token members of the church among their students (the school is far too expensive for our tastes, and so he had no interest anyway.)</p>

<p>That said, the culture promoted at Pepperdine does still revolve around some form of Christianity. The good news for you, as a homosexual student, is that, despite your narrow-minded assumption that Christians are “homophobes”, you would be well-treated by a lot of kind students who just want to go to school and aren’t going to want to talk about your sexuality and are not going to be spending their waking hours thinking of ways to attack you for your chosen sexual preferences. I am a Christian, and have worked with people I was aware had chosen the homosexual lifestyle, I have worshipped with people who struggled with their sexual desires, and I function in the world day by day without any hatred towards homosexuals.</p>

<p>If you were to attend Pepperdine, you would be expected to maintain the same kind of non-promiscuous life that all the students would be expected to maintain. But if you were to bring up the topic of homosexuality, you better be ready to be able to have an intelligent discussion, free of your own bigotry and ignorance. You might learn a thing or two about why Bible-believing Christians can treat you with love and respect but not give in to your demands that they agree with your lifestyle. The only reason I might encourage you to go to Pepperdine would be so you could learn some truth about your supposed enemies, those awful Christian homophobes. I have no doubt you would be shocked to learn the truth that no one at Pepperdine would be out to get you because of your lifestyle. In fact, you might be quite disappointed at the overall lack of interest.</p>

<p>If you need to have an outlet to express your homosexuality while in college, though, you ought to choose a campus that is clearly not one so affiliated with a particular denomination, one that does not tout that Christian culture on its website, and one that will even embrace and celebrate your lifestyle. There are far more universities that do not promise any kind of Christian culture, so choose one of those. Those schools are probably a lot less expensive than Pepperdine anyway.</p>

<p>Of course, given Pepperdine’s new LGBT scholarships and FAQs designed to answer the questions of LGBT students, it is obvious that many have already come to the campus and are working as change agents there, pushing the school to become more secular and openly accepting of their lifestyle. Ultimately, Pepperdine, as long as it accepts federal student loan aid, will someday be compelled to make changes in its policies about lifestyles that don’t represent Pepperdine’s original Christian-affiliate, Christianity-promoting culture, or stop accepting students who need to take out student loans. That is exactly why much smaller religious-oriented schools have already or are planning to get away from relying on federal financial aid, because if you take the government’s money, you have to do what the government says.</p>

<p>@chesterton: Please take the time to read my reply, since I took the time to read to yours. You see, I applied to 14+ schools, and I was not going to take the extra time to dissect info about a school’s stance on LGBT issues on top of essays, financial aid processes, school work (I have 7 AP classes because I’m home-schooled and can), homework, jobs, life, etc. I have, actually, done somewhat research to get a glimpse of LGBT student life at every college I applied to and Pepp is the only one that might have a dramatic issue with me being gay. Now, I’m not one of those people that like to rub in your face my sexuality, but unintentionally I do. I wear makeup, I dress trendy, I’m tall and have broad shoulders, I walk and talk with posh, I have the body of a pin-up boy, I wear high fashion clothes, my hair is always styled, I’m actually a model; and I don’t plan to change any of that in college. (So I agree with you that I should go to school somewhere where I can be myself.) You might be thinking: “those are stereotypes!” Yes, they are and it’s totally unfair to think any guy that has those habits is gay. But the world doesn’t work that way. Show me a male college student that is straight and all of the above, then you can slap me silly, but no… So, if being myself is shoving my sexuality down your throat, then it is what it is. Also, I don’t plan on any how promote anything pro-LGBT in college. I only (if I have and want to) promote human rights, and LGBT rights are human rights. A school that does not approve of that is indeed homophobic! Any school can try to hide their true ignorance with the whole “love the sinner not the sin” act because they interpret the Bible to condemn homosexuality, and then accept a student just to expel them later. But let me say one thing: every single Bible verse is vague, for instance, John 3:16. How can God have sent Jesus, if Jesus is God? You could say: “Oh, because God’s exists in the form of a holy trinity?” Well, the Bible doesn’t say anything “explicit” about the trinity-- those are “interpretations”. Or you could say: “Well, every church has different opinions and views.” So, the Bible doesn’t have a definite truth about anything? … Let me answer: No, it doesn’t! And it’s the same thing with the 5-6 verses in the Bible that are used to condemn homosexuality. The Bible is subject to perspective, context, and culture. There are many things that Leviticus and Deuteronomy condemn that hard core Christians still practice. And the languages the Bibles was written in does not help. Hebrew, Greek, and Latin are complex languages that you can’t simply translate to languages like English and write a verse that says something is an abomination. By now you’re probably surprised how I can even talk about such possibilities because you weren’t expecting a gay pretty-boy to be this enlightened. But, I can take on any debate, anytime, with anyone regarding this topic and win! And I would explain to you why I don’t think the Bible condemns homosexuality or homosexuals, but this is is not what CC is about. But, I don’t understand why any school would suspend a student for being gay, then, since not all Christians have the same views about everything. I’m gay and a Christian and I don’t think the Bible condemns me, so why would I get treated differently from a Christian that has the same views as I but is straight? But to me that doesn’t matter anyways because I’m not “promiscuous” or propagandist about my sexuality like you implied in your response. Actually, straight people are just as promiscuous as any LGBT person-- we’re just better at it. And, I doubt all Pepp students follow the “no sex” or “no party” rules. HA! As if… I bet Pepp has LGBT students, but are just really good at hiding it. And anyone who disregards our normality and our rights (especially our rights to attend Pepp) is homophobic!!! You are homophobic. Pepp is homophobic. Christians that read the Bible ignorantly are homophobic. You think “respecting” someone’s sexual choice- wait a second, it’s not choice! You think respecting someone’s sexual orientation is good enough to pass the homophobe test. Well it’s not. You’re just being a two faced fake person. You’re kind and sweet to gay people because you’re in public and can’t do anything about it anyways, but deep down you believe we’re going to hell, or that we are abnormal, or that our lifestyle is promiscuous. Well, I have more chances to go to heaven, have a normal life, and sexually driven just as much as the next straight Bible thumper. I want to go to college to have the same college experience as anyone else. I thought I would be able to have that at Pepp, but I guess not. But I wouldn’t want to go anyways after this discussion. Like I said, I just wish I could have taken the time back I spent applying. Oh well. Everything happens for a reason. I just hope you learned more about yourself and your Bible views, than I did about Pepp.</p>

<p>I have no idea why I even opened this thread, except I just read the book Torn by Justin Lee, who was a gay student at Wake Forest and is now an activist. You might find it interesting as you head off to any college. I have a very conservative friend with a gay son who found the book very enlightening.</p>

<p>Also interesting is a blog at Huffington Post Gay Voices written by Tre Easton called “Who’s Reviewing the Princeton Review”, responding to Princeton Review’s list of most LGBT Unfriendly colleges. I didn’t post a link since it’s against CC rules to link to blogs.</p>

<p>Both of my kids went to a tiny “Christian” school from pre school through high school. We didn’t really realize until about 5th grade. By high school they thought Catholic’s were practically heathens. I was ready for somthing else. They weren’t sure. They did have many experiences outside of school, so they weren’t completely sheltered from what I learned was “the secular world”. </p>

<p>My d ended up at Duke. She is still religious, certainly more than I, but she is less rigid, less conservative, and frankly less judgemental. I think that is a good thing, but I’d bet not everyone agrees. </p>

<p>I have visited LMU only a few times in the 2.5 years my son has been there , and there are certainly not as many "rules set up by the administration, but I get the impression that even though we chose it for it’s racial diversity, there is a great deal of homogeneity among it 's students. I have no idea how many gay stude ts tnere are, what “a lot” is, or how a parent would know. I know there are plenty of rich white students, and their is more drunken debauchery than my son would like. He seems. But there are a lot of places to socialize in LA. </p>

<p>You can check out the LMU page, but I think you’ll find actual LMU students do not actually frequent there. </p>

<p>“I wear makeup, I dress trendy, I’m tall and have broad shoulders, I walk and talk with posh, I have the body of a pin-up boy, I wear high fashion clothes, my hair is always styled, I’m actually a model;”</p>

<p>BTW, my son may disagree with at least some of your criteria about what characterizes gay vs straight guys. Okay, probably not much obvious make up on guys. Keep in mind that LMU is in LA, and many fancy themselves “would be” or actual models and actors. Your description of yourself sounds a little like our tour guide!</p>

<p>@chesterton</p>

<p>Phrases like “chosen sexual preference” and “chosen homosexual lifestyle” perfectly exemplify that many people that identify themselves as Christians just don’t get it. </p>

<p>@mamduck: TORN is an amazing book ,indeed!</p>

<p>@Shrinkrap: Thanks for replying. I’ve heard the same about LMU. I’ve heard it’s a real party school, even though the students there are really smart. And I think it’s pretty gay friendly, also. Which is okay for me, I guess. Tell your son I was being superficially stereotypical-- I know that guys in cities like LA will “fancy themselves” like you said. But like I said, it’s not fair to judge people on any basis besides their character. And, I’d love to give tours to people while I’m at college, lol!</p>

<p>@sundaypunch: They really don’t. </p>

<p>Thank you everyone. This discussion/thread is officially closed. But if anyone has anything they want to say, please feel free! I don’t bite… much…</p>

<p>Somehow I think you’ll be just fine, wherever you end up :-)</p>

<p>@shellz: what do you mean person-with-a-turtle-as-your-profile-picture?</p>

<p>You have backbone, my young friend. Stand tall, make no apologies for who you are, and keep the faith that you will land in the right place for college. And remember, life is what you make of it. These are all things tat many folks don’t get figured out until much later! Good luck!</p>

<p>@shellz: Wow (in a good way)! Thank you so much for your words! These last few months have been hectic, so your words give me hope. </p>

<p>Keep us posted. There are people pulling for you!</p>

<p>@shellz: Will do, I promise! I’ll post deets about everything that happens. Are you a regular on here, because I want you to know, especially.</p>

<p>I’m around a lot lately. But I’ll bookmark this thread anyway :)</p>

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<p>Hmmm, most of the gay guys I have encountered are nothing like this stereotype in terms of how they dress, use makeup, style their hair, etc…</p>

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<p>Pepperdine’s policy on sexual relations distinguishes between straight and gay marriage, even if the spouses in both are monogamously faithful to each other.</p>

<p>@ucbalumnus: if you thoroughly read my response, you’d know I was being crucially stereotypical, because if you saw me face-to-face you would automatically assume I’m gay. If not, then you’re one of the coolest people on Earth! And I totally believe there are gay guys that are nothing like I said, but that’s not the case with me.</p>

<p>Actually, your self-description sounds more like a flashy (in the sense of Hollywood or the wealthy parts of Los Angeles and Orange counties) stereotype, not an exclusively gay one (despite the stereotype, perhaps fostered by shows like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy that gay guys dress better).</p>