hippo2718

I was wondering if anyone could comment on the quality of life for LGBT students at Cornell.

I already know that it's a very accepting place, and I've read over the website, but I was looking for personal experiences if possible.

ILUxpssh

I'm not a current student at Cornell but my girlfriend is. When I went to the Diversity Overnight Program, I walked around a couple of residence halls. There were various bulletins with flyers all over them; some for myriad lgbt groups or even things like: Exploring the Orgasm and sexuality groups. I was even open about my sexuality (albeit not proclaiming it all over the place), and was treated no less of an equal around the people I met. It's very open.

I don't know if that told you anything, but it was just my small experience.

hippo2718

Thanks, that helped.

chendrix

The openly gay community here, while small, is active.

I have not encountered any hate crimes or discrimination in my personal life.
If you want to be a participant in the LGBT community, they are always looking for people in Haven and the other LGBT groups (there are even LGBT groups in Engineering, a traditionally heterosexual male dominated group).

If you don't want to participate actively, there are still programs and events put on that are fun to go to every now and then (Drag Bingo, Filthy Gorgeous, etc).

Most of the people here, however, are still in the closet. But I won't get into that.

countryangel926

I signed up as a straight ally for one of the LBGT groups during Club Fest...couldn't make it to the meetings, but I get all of their emails and they seem to plan a lot of fun events/have lots of open discussions. I have several gay friends so it's an important issue to me, but overall Cornell seems to be a very accepting place. A girl across the hall from me has her girlfriend over from Bing a lot, and I don't think it's ever been a problem for her.

hippo2718

Thanks for the info!


Chendrix, you said the community is a bit small and that a lot of people are closeted. Would you say there are still opportunities for dating? While I'm obviously looking for an accepting environment, I'd also like the community to have a critical mass.

chendrix

Of course there are opportunities for dating.
While the community is small it is still considerable in size. We have 20,000 students here, so even a small percentage of that number is large absolutely.

If you look past Cornell, there are lots of open gays at Ithaca College, in the city of Ithaca, and some of the close surrounding towns/cities.