Would it be safer to just go elsewhere as a gay student?

@secretlyAdog - It seems to me that you were “looking” for an answer that you already had and were stirring up the pot. I refuse to believe that “I came here looking for some insight into ND once I found out it was Catholic.” You mean that you applied to ND, were accepted and then you realized that it was a Catholic environment? The main page on their website shows Jesus on the Cross, a Priest and Pope Francis? Is the same as saying that I applied to BYU and I didn’t know they were Mormons. What was your Agenda, really?

@InigoMontoya - None taken. I have zero awareness of political events and in my neck of the woods we don’t beat people up just because… Then, according to your vision, gays are not safe anywhere? How about Pomona College? Will he/she be safe there? If so, then he should have applied to that School. Why apply to Notre Dame (not knowing that it was Catholic according to him/her) and then ask if it is SAFE to go there? Yet, stating over and over again that the Catholic Church doesn’t accept gay marriages? So what? To me this was just a facade to criticize the Catholic church openly, period.

@yalebound2020 Of course I knew Notre Dame was catholic when I applied. I was simply under the impression it was only nominally catholic. I had not extensively researched Notre Dame.The common app didn’t send up a blaring signal when I selected ND warning me of its religious sway.

I actually did apply to Pomona. So yea. What exactly is your problem with me? I found out a school I was seriously considering was very religious and so I asked. Its completely reasonable, you seem to be grasping at whatever straws you can to criticize me.

@yalebound2020, I think you are out of bounds. As many of the posters here have discussed, it’s certainly reasonable for a gay person to wonder if they will be accepted at a Catholic university, and to ask about that university’s atmosphere in that regard. While the use of the word “safe” in the title of the thread was maybe unfortunate, we all understood that the poster did not mean in a literal sense. I think it’s absolutely a fair question to ask.

OP, as I said in an earlier post, I think you would be fine at Notre Dame, but understand why you may feel more comfortable elsewhere. I wish you all the best!

I think the OP has received sufficient information about ND.

@secretlyAdog

I think there is one factor that should make your decision very easy. Even though this is 2016 and things have gotten much better in terms of gays not facing overt discrimination and fear of physical and emotional harm, it certainly still happens and could happen anywhere, not just ND. Let’s even say the odds are equal at various schools, just for the sake of this point. If it happened at most, if not all of the other schools you mention, you would receive a lot of support and the administrations would do a lot to help you seek justice. If that happened at ND, given that the administration is devoutly Catholic, I am afraid that the level of support might be far less or almost non-existent. Certainly there would be competing orthodoxies at work. I could be wrong about that, but why would you want to take that risk?