<p>Hey, I am alex I will be attending Grinnell next fall, but I was accepted at Williams too, however I chose Grinnell because I am gay, and I've heard that Williams is an extremely homophobic school, I have read in many places that there are like 30 gays in the whole school and that is almost impossible to have a serious relationship, that people will call you a FAG is you don't fit the "Jock" prototype, and that social life will be pretty lame if you come out as gay, more when you are a guy!! I wanted to know from students how true this is!! it's hard for me to believe that a liberal college like this in the northeast is so bad!!</p>
<p>Not true. There is homophobia (as you will find at any college, given that it’s hard to screen for during the admissions process), but I’ve never heard that word used, and I don’t think gay guys have lame social lives.</p>
<p>However, we are only 2000 people in the middle of nowhere, and I could understand a feeling of claustrophobia within the much smaller pool of gay people, and I can understand how some gay people feel that Williams is not a tolerant place. Other gay men feel the opposite. </p>
<p>Where did you read this?</p>
<p>I read it in a previous thread here in cc, in many colleges books, and in many web pages where they give advices of friendly places to go to when you re gay and Williams was in the list off the less tolerant places, and this thread assures my point of view , I posted the same thread in the Grinnell space, and in less than a day I had like 5 comments saying how gay friendly Grinnell was, but I guess since Williams is such a homophobic place in here I just get a comment saying that it is a half way homophobic school!! well I am so glad I picked Grinnell!!</p>
<p>Dude, I hope the hearsay on this website didn’t convince you to choose Grinnell over Williams. There is NO WAY OF KNOWING what your experience regarding homophobia will be like at either school.</p>
<p>I don’t think this thread proves anything. Looking into your Grinnell thread, even somebody there said that there are people that are extremely anti-gay. I think you’ll find those kind of people at most places, whether it be Grinnell or Williams. Unless you experience it yourself, you can’t say for sure that your future experience at Grinnell>your potential future at Williams. Either way you’ve already made your decision so it’s moot point. However if you believe that this thread makes your decision the “correct” one, then so be it.</p>
<p>I’m going to Williams, and I’d never call someone a ■■■ for not fitting in the jock style, etc. etc. etc.</p>
<p>Pardon me if I’m wrong, but I find it awfully suspicious that most of the OP’s posts center around the controversial “Minorities, queers, intellectuals, don’t go” post, his first post was made 20 minutes before posting on that thread, and he decides to post on the Williams forum about Williams being homophobic AFTER he made his decision (while his FIRST post is the same as this thread on Grinnell’s forum) and claims that the lack of posts (which is probably due to the forum being dead after May 1st) indicates homophobia at Williams.</p>
<p>I hate to sound cynical, but all this adds up to seem rather rehearsed and orchestrated next to “I’m an international (hispanic), gay male and intellectual”, which fits the exact billing on the other thread’s title (Minorities, queers, intellectuals). Considering that the OP of that thread made an account just to post it…well, I suspect that alex911 could just be an account made by another (or even the same) anti-Williams poster. If not, then I’m truly sorry and I wish the OP the best of luck at Grinnell, another great school.</p>
<p>Clariss, first of all ,I am by no means anti Williams!! I love that College, it was my dream college for so many years, I was just asking, I never made a statement like the person in the thread “Minorities, queers, intellectuals, don’t go” did, and if you saw my comments there, you would realize that I was asking their opinion about the issue… secondly if you think I have an agenda, why would I post this thread after the admission process was over??, even the wait list process was over more than a week ago, according to posts in here. And yeah all of my post center around the controversial “williams being homophobic” because you have no idea of how is for a boy to grow up gay in a Latin American country, in my school if someone was gay, he would be kick out, I had to bear people calling my ■■■■■■ everyday without telling my parents or the teachers because they will be disgusted just by the fact that people have doubts about my sexuality, my parents took me to a psychiatrist when I was 6 because I liked to play with dolls, my class mates in junior high even attacked me physically and I couldn’t say anything because no one would care if a “■■■” was beaten, I prayed every night of my childhood for God to cure me because I was a “freak” unless that was what I had heard my whole life, my mom said once that she would rather have a thief in the family than a gay man… so when I was in high school the only thing that I could think of was how to get off that situation and go to a college in the United States where the people wouldn’t look at me as a freak!!.. probably for you that is all so banal, but for me it is the most important thing about a school, if I am going to feel accepted, if I am going to be happy and if for once in my life I would be in the place where I can tell the people who I am and have friends who value me for the person that I am!! so Im truly sorry if I bother you in any way by posting this thread/ question, but I just wanted to be confident with my decision because as I told you Williams was my dream college for many many years, and sometimes I think that I should have gone there, but you know what? now I am happy with my choice because even if Williams is so much better than Grinnell in many ways, Grinnell still would be 1000 more gay friendly, and at the end that is what matters for me in this moment. </p>
<p>P.S. Look for Williams in this list of gay friendly schools and you will have a surprise. [Campus</a> Pride: Find Your Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Friendly College or University](<a href=“http://www.campusclimateindex.org/]Campus”>http://www.campusclimateindex.org/)</p>
<p>Alex, I’m sorry you won’t be going to Williams as my daughter will be going in the fall and she will miss the growing hispanic community at our High School. As a liberal quaker, she is open and accepting of the LGBT communitiy and would love to get to know you and hopefully practice her Spanish. That being said, Grinnell will also be wonderful for you. Best of luck. There is a quaker comedian (Peterson?) who has done some funny routines about his time at the “homo no more halfway house” with conservative christians and I suspect your experiences don’t differ much. It might provide some healing. </p>
<p>Best of luck at Grinnell and keep me posted as to how your doing. One of my D’s best friends is gay and will be attending Haverford. I think most elite LACs are open and accepting. But, of course, there will always be narrow-minded people in any community.</p>
<p>Alex - I’m very sorry I doubted your story. Forgive me for my mistake. I’ve just been very skeptical about a lot of posts on CC as of late and the bias against Williams on some threads in this forum. I had also never heard that Williams was homophobic in any guidebooks or websites before posting on this thread (e.g. Princeton Review, U n i g o, The Insider’s Guide, C o l l e g e P r o w l e r, F i s k e 's Guide), so I wasn’t convinced.</p>
<p>But that’s besides the point. I’m sorry again, and I appreciate that you were able to share your story with us. I wish you the best of luck with finding an accepting, caring community at Grinnell and your years afterward.</p>
<p>Alex, here’s the site: [Doin</a>’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House - HomoNoMo.com](<a href=“NameBright - Domain Expired”>http://www.homonomo.com/)</p>
<p>Check it out, he is very funny and found comedy as a way to heal from all the self loathing. I understand why clariss posted defensively. There are 2 other cool people from our community going to Williams. The val from our HS “loves it” as well as others I have personally talked to. So, it’s a bit deflating to be excited to go to college and see random negative stuff on an anonymous message board when everything you see and hear is positive.</p>
<p>GT alum, thank you!!! for your words and for the information, I am actually watching Peterson videos right now on youtube (I have never heard of him), they are hilarious… the situation he describes are different from mine because his problem was religion while my problem is culture, but in the end whe all the homophobic stories are essentialy the same, the all are about how people are imcapable of love and accept others different than them, and how their hate makes us believe that we are sinners, and that we are sick, however as same as he did, I realized that I wasn´t a sinner because I love God with all my heart, and he made me this way, I never chose to be gay, it was a “gift” he gave me and the most important task at that moment for me was love me in the same way that God does… wow I am so glad you gave that information, now I am expressing my emotiosn more easily. I will keep you posted with my life at Grinnell. </p>
<p>Clariss, I am also sorry because I got carried away, in my previous comment, please forgive me if I was rude in anyway against you. I completely understand you were suspicious about al the comments made recently being about homophobia at Williams, but you have to understand that the statement made in the other thread are very horrible and they make you wonder the truth. Congratulations for being a proud Williams 2014, I wish you the best, and hopefully we can talk in some months from now so that you can give me your own impresions of the college, I am sure you will love it and will make me love it even more!!</p>
<p>Alex, I’m glad we reached a mutual understanding. I wasn’t offended by what you said and now I know you are being honest about your situation, so thank you. I hope we’ll be able to update each other on our experiences in a couple of months as well - I’ll be sure to let you know if there’s been any LGBT-related progress!</p>