<p>I know most LACs are pretty gay friendly, but is Amherst particularly accepting?</p>
<p>My sophomore Amherst daughter says “yes”. She says there are a bunch of free shirts that get sent around. One is “Gay Fine By Me”. During freshman orientation, there are discussions about gay acceptance. There is a LGBT office in the basement of Keefe for social/meetings/advisors. It’s just not a big deal on campus; everyone is very accepting and inclusive.</p>
<p>Very accepting dude. Northampton has one of the states largest lgbt populations too (30 minutes by bus). 90% of backpacks I see on campus have pride ribbons.</p>
<p>awesome question. I was wondering as well since I’m not exactly open to anyone but my best friend, and I would like to be myself at college, which could very well end up being at amherst!</p>
<p>I’m not a student but my tour guide was obviously gay and also obviously happy there, or else I doubt he would’ve been a tour guide!</p>
<p>Amherst is no more accepting than any other school. It is not homophobic by any means, and the very gay-friendly Northampton is just down the road, but as a student at Amherst with gay friends, they tell me it is no gay paradise, honestly.</p>
<p>However, they feel accepted, and they are all out and proud. One of my friends, who is also an athlete says the athletes (which make up a majority of our school) can be a little weird about it.</p>
<p>Obviously gay.</p>
<p>I wonder what makes someone obviously gay.</p>
<p>Generally yes. But there should be distinctions made. I agree with Lyle that sports teams are more conservative when it comes to accepting homosexuals. Frats may be a bit more conservative as well (just a guess, I’m not part of one). In short, there are groups who are not very accepting, but even then, I’ve never heard of any incidence of persecution. In the end, these groups are few and far in between, so there really isn’t anything to worry about.</p>
<p>I thought Amherst banned all frats…?</p>
<p>on-campus frats are banned. there are still off-campus frats though.</p>
<p>are they that popular? how much of presence do they have on campus?</p>
<p>The frats are by no means a major part of the social life here, but act as an extra option on a Thursday night, for instance. And I know of at least one openly gay kid in one of them, so I don’t think it’s really an issue. </p>
<p>As for the sports teams being more conservative on the matter, I think that’s a result of teams being more noticeable as group entities, but I don’t think their opinions are more lopsided than if you would poll a random group of 60 kids on campus. From what I’ve heard from my gay friends, life at Amherst is no better and no worse than it would be at similar LACs. There’s a Superman themed GAP (Gay Amherst Party) this weekend and I know of several straight people who plan to go just because it sounds fun, if that’s any indication of the relaxed feel of things.</p>
<p>When I visited this fall, I heard a story about an athlete calling a guy a ‘■■■’ at a party; the captain of said athlete’s team heard about it and asked his coach to suspend the offending player for the whole season. That struck me as a pretty responsible response, and one implying that [most] athletes take discrimination just as seriously as anyone else at Amherst.</p>
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<p>Is that true?</p>
<p>Go to Oberlin. There is no need to wear those silly “Gay Fine by Me” tee shirts…gimme a break…</p>
<p>My impression was that around 30% of students are athletes (varsity) so clearly that isn’t the majority</p>
<p>If you add in the club sports and intermurals, I believe the number I have heard before is around 70% participation.</p>
<p>Correct, GA2012MOM.</p>
<p>Considering Club sports take themselves just as seriously as Varsity, go to just as many tournaments, and throw just as many parties, they are, when trying to define how many athletes go to Amherst, just as important.</p>
<p>I disagree slightly with the assessment of the nature of club sports teams at Amherst. Often, the student athletes in club teams do take their sports as seriously as varsity athletes, but they do not always (or even often) share the same “jock” profile. </p>
<p>That is to say, simply because 70% of students participate in athletics at one level or another does not mean that 70% of the student body is homogeneous in activities, priorities, attitudes, etc. This isn’t in opposition to lyle’s comment, but worth noting none-the-less.</p>
<p>I’m a gay Senior at Amherst (who might have given a tour to quomodo) and I think it is a great place to be as a gay man. </p>
<p>It’s obviously not a gay mecca. There are people at Amherst who may be slightly homophobic, but I’ve never found any issues with classmates respecting each other.</p>
<p>The school has two GAPs (Gay amherst parties) per semester, which attract gay students from all of the other four schools (lots of men from UMass and Hampshire). They are really popular parties and are tons of fun.</p>
<p>Also, the Pioneer Valley, where the 5-college consortium is, is very gay-friendly. Tons of gay people (especially around Northampton) and Amherst is generally a very liberal town.</p>
<p>Hope that helps. Feel free to pm me for more questions!</p>