<p>This might sound offensive or ignorant, but I'm a gay high school student from southern california. I absolutely loved IU when i visited, and I'm admitted and think the school is academically perfect for me.</p>
<p>However, I am concerned that the level of tolerance for homosexuality might be considerably lower than what i've experienced in UC and private California schools. My admittedly narrow current view is that this is still something that's not accepted or talked about in the midwest, but I could be wrong as I haven't really been able to talk to any locals about it.</p>
<p>Can anybody give me thoughts on this?</p>
<p>I was also wondering if anybody knows about being gay in the greek system.</p>
<p>well i know that the glbt will tell me that everybody’s treated equally and that they’re there for support and all that, but i was more wondering if anybody had personal experience or opinions</p>
<p>thank you though for that link, i’ll definitely check it out</p>
<p>Indiana, as a whole, might not be the most progressive state. Bloomington, however, is a lovely little liberal pocket with a thriving LGBT community. You will encounter a lot of intolerant people, as I’m sure you would at any giant state university, but Bloomington is known for being rather accepting. I’m sure you wouldn’t have any problems finding your niche group here.</p>
<p>While I cannot relate to being homosexual, a couple friends are and they never bring up being discrimintaed against. You should come visit Bloomington and take a look at Uncle E’s (local gay bar).</p>
<p>The website has lots of newsletters and annual reports from the past ten years, as well as a list of staff, faculty and friends of the group organized by academic department at IU. You can find contacts in the academic departments in which you are interested to get their perspective also. Plug their name into the IU “address book” to get their campus email addresses.</p>
<p>I don’t know any gay guys at IU, but I know several lesbians and they’re all accepted by their peers and have a lot of friends. You still hear the words “■■■■■■” and “homo” tossed around campus every day, but that only represents a small part of the students here.</p>
<p>As far as the Greek System (which my familiarity with is not great), the top houses may be discouraged by the fact but otherwise it won’t hurt you but certainly wont help. And any house that refuses to give you a bid for that reason obviously isn’t worth it.</p>
<p>We are from the SF Bay Area and my daughter remarked to me early in her freshman year “there are no gay people here!” She was dismayed by that, but of course has discovered since that there are gay people, they just aren’t as open about it as what she is used to. She has not seen any discrimination at all, just less diversity. So relative to what you are used to you might find it harder, but I wouldn’t worry too much about being treated badly.</p>
<p>Just wanted to add onto here - today in one of my large gender studies lectures, two students were giving a presentation. How males dress came up in their discussion, and one of the (male) students mentioned that he hates how his boyfriend dresses. I was sitting in the back of the class and didn’t see anyone turn to their friend to whisper about it, or make rude remarks or anything of the sort. I think that’s just one example of how surprisingly tolerant this place can be.</p>
<p>Homophobia thrives in the rural areas of Indiana and other Midwestern states, and so you may occasionally run into people who are less accepting, but Bloomington as a whole is pretty liberal and open-minded. My best friend is gay and pretty open about it, I’ve never seen anyone openly confront him about it, but occasionally people will ask me if he’s gay or be just slightly uncomfortable about the subject. I don’t think that you’ll face outright discrimination except in an extreme extreme case, but you will run into people who are just becoming comfortable with knowing people who are openly gay. Trust me when I say that homophobic remarks are not tolerated by the student body at large, and you will be given a dirty look or be seen as intolerant if you make a homophobic joke outside of your close friends.</p>
<p>Another example from a class…in a large lecture, a student told the professor that “surveys are gay.” He got glaring looks from the rest of class, lots of dropped jaws, and very dirty looks. And this was in a poli sci class with a huge chunk of very conservative students.</p>
<p>If you’re coming from southern california, then yeah, expect people to be a bit less tolerant in Indiana. I hear Bloomington is one of the more liberal towns however, so I’m sure you’ll be fine. Even if people aren’t tolerant, they won’t let it be known to you how much they hate your sexual orientation. There will always be a few ******bags who call it as they see it, but if someone is calling people out for being gay then they probably aren’t very well liked to begin with.</p>
<p>I think this thread is hysterical. First of all, Indiana is NOT intolerant…certainly not in Bloomington or Indianapolis. Second of all, IUB has one of the finest performing arts schools in the country and there are lots and lots of gay people. Nobody cares.</p>