I am the mom of an “out” gay son at Penn, which was rated to be one of the most accepting colleges for lgbt students.
My (currently a freshman) son “picked” a roommate from the class fb page where they ran a spreadsheet of students looking for roommates. They had many of the same ECs (orchestra, community service etc) and academic interest similarities…Son thought he picked a “quality” person as the student was also a coke-cola scholar i.e. lots of community service and wanting to make a difference for marginalized people in the world… (My son was a runner up coke scholar).
At the very last minute my son received a phone call from the student saying he couldn’t room w my son bc his parents had stalked my son online /on Facebook/ google and had found out my son was gay . So bc my son was gay the student wouldn’t be allowed to room w my son. My son told the student “thats literally the definition of housing discrimination” and the student said “well I’m Christian so its not”. Son said “trust me Im Catholic and it is”.
Nothing the school could do about it, but they gave him a contact w the lgbt student center and had an lgbt student contact him to make him feel more welcome. Their advice was to advertise for an LGBT roommate.
Son just went random selection. Luckily, he was put in a triple with one not at all homophobic student and one student that “tolerates” lgbt. The dorm room situation hasn’t been a problem… son has found many many people on campus that are very accepting…
Son has had to face homophobic preachers spewing hatred on campus on multiple days as he walks to class and the school can’t do anything… sadly lgbt are the only group targeted on campus by these hate spewers… in the name of free speech of course…
Also unfortunately he rushed a frat/ thinking frats are now accepting …and again he was slapped in the face with blatant homophobia. Son said the only lgbt students that get into frats at his school are the ones who aren’t out during rush. It seems to be semi ok though once you get in the frat to then come out, FWIW.
I think great progress was made but in this political climate some feel very free to voice their homophobia sadly.