Hi! I’m a 16 year old gay male, I have a 3.3 GPA with lots of honors and AP classes. I’m currently a junior at a New Hampshire high school. I am looking into a double major in public relations or marketing paired with graphic design or studio art. I’m interested in University of Tampa and Eckerd, but Eckerd is pricey and UTampa doesn’t seem to have a remarkably active gay scene. Some other schools I’m looking at are San Diego State, UT Austin, Florida International, Flagler, and Portland State. Can I get any recommendations for LGBT friendly schools?
@janjmom linked this to me before. I found it helpful.
The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to try and get in touch with a current student that can give you insight into LGBTQ+ life on campus. In my experience, it has been a little difficult to find much information online beyond the typical LGBTQ diversity tab on websites. If you can, check out the student organizations list (where you can often find queer focused groups) and look into it further that way. Sometimes groups will have websites where you can see events, resources offered, find further information, etc. It takes a bit of digging to find information online, so like I mentioned before, your best bet would be to get in touch with current students!!
Looks like you have a lot of out-of-state public universities on your list. Will these be affordable to you and your parents without financial aid?
It’s a lot harder to find universities that aren’t queer-friendly at this point. It would be helpful for posters to have a better idea of what you’re looking for in terms of size, location, selectivity, affordability, etc.
UT Austin will be unlikely with a 3.3 GPA as an out-of-state (OOS) applicant.
I’m looking into urban campuses, hopefully larger than 5k undergrad, and I want to be able to get enough aid to bring the price to 30k/yr. UT Austin is a reach.
It’s a bit smaller than what you’re looking for, but Emerson is definitely worth a look. American and Syracuse come to mind. Temple is another possibility if you could get merit aid.
If you are considering Portland State, what about maybe also Lewis & Clark in Portland? Terrific city.
Maybe Clark and Wheaton in MA (not Wheaton in IL), Bard College in NY, and Goucher in Baltimore? Clark, I think, gives fairly generous aid. I don’t know about the others.
UT Austin is very difficult OOS because the state puts an emphasis on ensuring in-state students have spots and only about 5% of the students are OOS. Maybe look at St. Edward’s University if you want to be in Austin, which is a fun place. I don’t know much about the school though. Good luck!
You should check out UNC-Asheville. You have an outstanding chance with your stats plus it was voted the best school in the southeast for Gay youth. Everyone there is so accepting of everyone and there’s a considerable LGBT population on campus. You said you wanted a more urban scene. The city of Asheville itself is absolutely gorgeous. Vibrant art and music culture plus the nightlife got me into a lot more trouble than I intended 
All true about UNC-Asheville. I actually thought I had recommended it as well.
The Campus Pride Index has been very helpful for my kid. The same website has a list of shame as well, schools that are indifferent or possibly even hostile to LGBT students. You’ll need to filter for your particular major choices, college size, and selectivity, of course, but I’d say the top 50 on that list all seem to be quite decent schools.
We ask about the LGBT scene on each school tour, because that’s my kid’s dating pool for the next 4 years. One thing we learned at one college (Franklin and Marshall) was that they appreciated that their school had more than one LGBT organization on campus, because it meant there were choices in friend groups and more than one place you could hang out in case there was relationship drama.
We also ask about the LGBT group integration into campus drinking culture, and whether it’s possible to attend their events without being pressured into drinking.
That doesn’t really help your college search with a specific name, but hopefully it helps you with questions to ask at various campuses. Good luck, I hope you find your place.
If you were thinking California with San Diego State, San Francisco State and University of San Francisco have a very vibrant gay scene.