I’m applying for housing at UC Davis right now, and I am thinking about applying for Rainbow house, which is the housing for students and supporters of LGBTQ. I’m not sure if I’m gay but I thought I’d give it a shot. My parents aren’t that supportive of the gay community and I don’t feel ready to tell them yet that I’m bi/gay. The rainbow house at UC davis is one floor of a dorm hall, and I was just thinking, on move in day, if my mom helps me move in and hangs out a bit, would she find out it’s the rainbow house? do the RA’s welcome you to the “rainbow house” or will there be any indications that it is gay housing on the walls or posters or anything?
Thank you 
I was able to move in all of my stuff myself. If you’re that concerned about getting found out, just don’t apply to the rainbow house at all. Simple as that. Alternatively, you could move in a day earlier than your move in date. My move in date was on a Sunday but I arrived Saturday night and was the only one there.
@okinage34 but it’s my mom haha she is GOING to be there
I actually quickly ruled this out for the same reason as you! Even if it’s really low-key up close (I have no idea, I only toured Tercero & Segundo), the location of the Rainbow Hall can be easily found out. That being said, you should probably try to find someone who as lived there and take their word over mine! Also, you might be able to find an answer by contacting the LGBTQIA Student Resource Center. I wish you luck! 
I don’t know about Rainbow House specifically, but I was on the quiet floor my freshman year. They didn’t do any “welcome to the quiet floor!” type of things while move-in was going on, but there were postings on the bulletin boards around the floor talking about the program. I know that this is a vastly different situation than Rainbow House, but that’s what I saw.
Actually now that I think about it, me and my current roommates went wandering around to our old freshman dorm floors to see what was going on at the very beginning of fall quarter this year. We were on my old floor just checking out how it was looking, and didn’t find out until a couple days later that it was the rainbow house. We didn’t see anything to indicate what it was, but we also weren’t really looking at bulletin boards and such. We only found out because one of my roommates met someone living there at a club meeting a couple days later.
The easiest way to avoid any issue is to not apply for the program, but it doesn’t seem like they draw attention to it…though keep in mind that that information is easy to find. Just doing a quick google search, it seems like rainbow house is slated to be in Thoreau next year. It doesn’t specify a floor though, if that helps. Keep in mind that the RAs are trained (or I should hope they are at least!) to understand that 1. not every student is out to their parents and 2. not everyone’s parents are supportive of the LGBTQ community. To that end I’m guessing they won’t try to draw attention to it while parents are there, but I can’t say from experience if they typically do.
Thank you so much!!
@fennec38 so your not opting for rainbow house? did you pick cuarto though? is there a chance they’ll put you in rainbow house without you choosing it?
@penname123 no, I ended up putting Tercero as my number one choice and Segundo as my second. I kind of determined early on that it would be a bit risky for me, so I went with the other ones, which are much closer anyway. I don’t think they would put you in a living-learning community without you choosing it; from what I’ve read it seems like they are able to fulfill most of their housing requests
@fennec38 thats good to hear so are there members of the lgbt community that don’t choose to stay in rainbow house? or do majority of them still choose that option?
^ Given that the rainbow house is often only one floor, I would say that the majority of LGBTQ freshmen aren’t living there. I know we had a few LGBTQ people on my floor, and I’m pretty sure rainbow house was in Segundo that year.
Of course, rainbow house also gives you a kind of assurance that the people there are at the very least supportive of the community. That’s the main advantage, to my knowledge. But hey, even if you don’t live there there’s nothing stopping you from making friends and hanging out there!
Yeah, I am an incoming freshman lesbian but I am choosing not to live on the rainbow floor… Mostly because my parents don’t know yet and I am more interested in being in the business/leader environment then surrounded by other gay people. Especially if they are mostly going to be all about gay pride stuff… I figure the gay floor would have a lot of LGBTQ stuff posted or something