Location. Some states have enacted discriminatory laws that could make it unsafe there.
Also, the Campus Pride index does not contain all schools. Colleges must pay to participate in this guide.
3 Likes
This survey-based list from the Princeton Review may be of interest:
3 Likes
I think thatâs a better list
1 Like
Have noticed the Elon negative comments usually come from someone with absolutely no connection to Elon. Thatâs CC for you. Itâs unfortunate. I guess I could show up to bash other peopleâs colleges based on no personal experience but that seems silly to me.
@Mom270, can you please elaborate to make sure I properly understand this? You can do it either here or send me a private message, whatever is more comfortable for you.
I will send you a message.
I didnât say anything bad about Elon. I often recommend it actually when I think it is a good fit.
But I live in NC about 30 minutes away from Elon, both my LGBTQ kids went to school in the same county as Elon and were on the campus when in high school for various events and they do not think of Elon as having a queer vibe. I canât think of any LGBTQ kids we know who even applied there and we know lots of LGBTQ kids. In contrast, at Warren Wilson over half the student body IDs as LGBTQ. UNC-Asheville also has a very out LGBTQ vibe.
Iâm sure LGBTQ kids at Elon feel supported and Iâm sure Elon has good policies in place as a university, but is it the queerest school in the state â not to mention country? Not by a long shot.
The towns of Elon and Burlington are also not as LGBTQ friendly as Asheville, Chapel Hill, or Durham, or Greensboro. And yes I have been to the little Alamance County Pride celebration.
And honestly, thatâs a bad list @CC_Sorin. I like Guilford too but it doesnât belong on the list. And you definitely need way more womenâs colleges. As a parent of two LGBTQ kids the Princeton Review list is way better.
For my money (literally, got one in college right now) the gayest schools in North Carolina are:
Warren Wilson (by far)
UNC-Asheville
UNC School of the Arts
And then it is a little murkier in the middle
UNC Chapel Hill and Duke are in super gay friendly towns/cities â some of the most LGBTQ places in the country, but they are big schools so not the concentrated queerness of a Warren Wilson.
UNC Greensboro should be in the middle here too. Lots of arts kids at UNC-G.
Elon is in here.
I have never actually gotten a queer vibe at Guilford but I could see it somewhere a little further down the middle. Itâs got a bit of a hippie/small urban school vibe. Pretty diverse. quite a few local Greensboro kids go there.
Most of the other big schools would be in the further down middle here, too like NC State. App State. UNC-Charlotte.
I think Western Carolina and East Carolina would be further down the list. Iâm sure there are LGBTQ kids at both but they donât have a rep in the state as LGBTQ hotspots.
2 Likes
It is a welcoming and inclusive LGBT community and thatâs probably why it made that survey. Not sure why you always need to weigh in on Elon when your kids did not attend there. Thatâs CC for you.
The beauty of CC is that it is a public forum where everyone can express an opinion, as long as thatâs done in a polite and mindful kind of way. People experience things differently, see them differently and thatâs fine. Not everyone needs to agree. We welcome various opinions about schools and let the community make up their own minds.
That said, I intervene here @Mom270 because I wanted to make sure there isnât any anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment, or hostility being passed around the community.
1 Like
Did you receive my message? Not sure if I did that correctly. Not seeing much beauty in CC.
Thank you for this detailed explanation. You did a great job capturing something that has been hard for me to put into words. What you describe is also present in the state where I live. There are many excellent schools in our state where the administrative policies are good, and where I am sure that an LGBTQ+ student would be tolerated and even welcomed. But that is a different experience than being embraced and celebrated by a thriving community of your own people. Some schools are justâŠmore gay. And my kid wanted that instead of just tolerance. It doesnât mean schools without a thriving queer community are bad schools. There is a school in our state that I imagine to be a lot like Elon: extremely well run, beautiful campus, happy students, great career placement, good academics without being highly rejective, rapidly making a name for itself nationwide, tolerant campus policies. Itâs a lovely school, and I recommend it a lot, actually. But my own LGBTQ+ kid did not consider it, and that makes sense to me.
5 Likes
@fiftyfifty1 yes, that sounds like a very similar situation in your state. âTolerantâ does not mean Elon needs to be on CCâs list as the number one LGBTQ school in the country!
My kids are LGBTQ so I have some feelings about this and Elon is a school I am familiar with. Itâs a great school for the right kid. It does not have a big queer vibe though.
According to the poll here, âLGBTQ Student Lifeâ is by far the #1 factor when LGBTQ students responding here pick a school. I know it was a big one for my lesbian daughter. I do not think CCâs list reflects this (nor Campus Prideâs list, which is a crying shame).
@CC_Sorin I think CC should differentiate its list from the Campus Pride Index. I really didnât find the Campus Pride Index very helpful at all when we were looking at schools. The Pride Index is self-nominated by the colleges and only focuses on âLGBTQ-friendly policies, programs, and practicesâ, not the âLGBTQ student lifeâ that the CC poll here shows is the most important consideration. You can have a school that has great policies, but not a great queer vibe. The Princeton Reviewâs list is sourced from students and is a better reflection of student life and perceptions.
I would be interested in other CC userâs rankings of LGBTQ friendly schools in their states if anyone wants to weigh in.
5 Likes
@Sweetgum, totally agree with your point here and ultimately thatâs why this thread was created. The Campus Pride Index was used to create the list, but we have opened it for you to add other schools based on your own experiences. 
1 Like
Sorry didnât mean to reply to you. Editing to reply to CC_Sorin.
My lesbian daughter just walked in the door and I asked her what her impressions were and she agreed that Elon does not have a big gay rep around here in NC and she doesnât know anyone in her LGBTQ circles in North Carolina who even applied there. (Iâm sure there are LGBTQ kids there, but itâs just not top of mind when thinking of schools with a good gay vibe around here. ) She says Warren Wilson, UNC-Asheville, UNC-Greensboro (also affectionately called UNC-Gay instead of UNC-G) are the ones she knows of. We know happen to know gay kids at all three of those schools plus UNC- Chapel Hill.
The womenâs colleges are very inclusive to LBTQ kids and should be on the list.
2 Likes
I think we should get back to the topic and not focus on Elon.
2 Likes
I am not sure the list is ranked and Elon is #1. My interpretation is that this is an unranked list featuring some LGBTQ-friendly colleges & universities to consider. Elon is just one of those schools, so I agree with @Lindagaf that we shouldnât get stuck on it.
1 Like
If you donât want us to talk about the list what do you want us to talk about in this thread?
Of course you can talk about the list. We encourage you all to share your experiences and add schools to this list.
However, there is no point in getting stuck in this back and forth about Elon. Both you and @Mom270 have expressed your opinions. You have different viewpoints and thatâs fine. As said, thatâs the beauty of CC. There is no point reinterating the same though.
3 Likes