Hey everyone! Duke is one of the top colleges on my list at the moment, but I’ve really been wondering how life is for gay students at Duke. I want to be able to be myself in college and have the option to date at some point, so that’s something important I’m looking for in my college choices. Are gay students at Duke generally accepted, and do they fit in the social scene at Duke? Also is there a relatively good dating scene at Duke for gay students?
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Yes, gay students are accepted and there is a very active LGBT community at Duke. The Duke student body is very open/accepting and the triangle area is actually very liberal unlike the majority of the state of North Carolina. I wouldn’t worry about being a gay student at Duke in the least. Search for warblersrule posts in the past for more information – if anything, Duke has become more accepting/active since those posts.
Yes, as @bluedog noted, Duke is extremely accepting, and there’s a great LGB community on campus. It’s not hard to date on campus (I did), and Carolina has a large queer population, which expands the dating pool. I have to admit that it is still not easy to be gay and rushing a frat, but that is unfortunately true of many schools. You should really get second opinions on that if/when you visit Duke, though.
Up until about 15-20 years ago, Duke had a negligible number of openly gay/lesbian students on campus with relatively little institutional support, so this is an area in which Duke has completely transformed in recent years.
Since you asked about Vandy in another thread, I’ll add that I know the director of the LGBT center there quite well, as he used to work in the center at Duke. He’s worked hard to improve LGBT life at Vanderbilt, and it seems to be a pretty good place to be gay these days.