Being Gay at Tech ... I have questions

InPursuit
Sat, 29 Mar 2014 01:00:18 +0000

More than likely, you will end up with a roommate who does not have a problem with your sexuality. There are no guarantees that you will become friends with your roommate or that he will share your beliefs, but you shouldn’t worry too much about having a hostile roommate. If you do run into trouble, your Peer Leader has been trained to deal with this situation and will be able to assist you. If necessary, your Peer Leader will work with your hall director to help you transition to another room, but this is very rare and typically reserved for extreme situations. GT Housing is very accepting and supportive of LGBTQ students. The director of the Freshman Experience program and two of the Hall Directors for the Freshman dorms identify as LGBT, and all of the hall directors are supportive.

If you ever need assistance or feel like you are not getting the support you expect, I encourage you to reach out to Dean Stephanie Ray. She is an associate dean of students and the Director of Diversity Programs for Tech, a huge ally, and has years of experience helping LGBT students have the best experience possible at Tech.

Tech also recently established an LGBTQIA Resource Center and has hired a director to run that office. That means that when you arrive at Tech, there will be a administrator whose sole job is to support students like you.

There are also two students groups dedicated to the LGBT and allied community:

Pride Alliance(Focused on support, education, advocacy/awareness, volunteering, and social events): http://www.pride.gatech.edu/

oSTEM(Focused on professional develop): https://www.facebook.com/OstemAtGT

Pride Alliance and oSTEM often partner with companies to provide LGBTQ and allied students with opportunities to network with friendly employers, and several employers even have recruiting events targeted to attracting LGBT talent. Most of the companies who hire at Tech would not hesitate to hire an LGBT employee.

Both Pride Alliance and oSTEM will likely have a table out during FASET and at various times throughout the year, so I would encourage you to talk to them when you get the chance. Pride Alliance also typically has a Welcome Week (various events every day of the week) for LGBTQ and allied students during the second week of the semester. You can join the mailing list for Pride Alliance here: http://www.pride.gatech.edu/#maillist

Please also free free to reach out to any of the current officers of Pride Alliance if you have further questions: http://www.pride.gatech.edu/#officers