Some Guys Are Normal

The Gayest and Greatest Colleges

Reader Shorty pointed me to a NYT article (free registration may be required) about a new college guidebook that will help GLBT students decide which colleges are the most accepting in the country. The book, called The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students, is the first one of its kind since way back in 1994. That suprised me. With all of the gay organizations out there, I would have assumed there would have been something like this already out on the market.

The book lists the top 100 most accepting colleges and universities in the nation, but it doesn't rank them--saying the prize of "most gay friendly" campus is always going to be subjective, which makes sense to me. However, in speaking of the subjectivity of the book, one student commented that he was surprised that Duke University made the list when it was listed as one of the most homophobic schools in the nation by the Princeton Review in 1999. Maybe Duke has made some huge strides recently, but I'd be willing to guess that it has more to do with the decision-making factors that the two books used to come to their decisions.

I personally think the book is a good idea. Choosing a college is an incredibly huge decision, and if nothing else, students can use it as one of the many resources to help guide them to making one of the biggest choices of their lives. The NYT article also mentions that progressive or liberal straight students may also take interest in the book to help them find more liberal campuses. I wonder if the opposite would happen with conservative students and families. Can you imagine a conservative family telling a student he or she couldn't go to a particular college because it was too gay? You've got to watch out for those gay indoctriniation camps, you know.

posted by Brady @ 7:01 AM