<p>Hi Everyone! ive been interested in attending a boarding school for about 3 years now. Im currently a Freshmen in high school and would like to know which BS has the most gay students, It would be really nice to have a very large community with me, As a current public school student in Arizona you can only imagine that there’s no such thing here. So yes feel free to answer my question :)</p>
<p>P.S. (it totally sucks that none of the schools are still accepting applications for the 14-15 school years )</p>
<p>I think you’re looking for an active gay community because statistically, no school should have a greater number of gay students than others because sexuality isn’t one of the considerations for admission. Check out Choate.</p>
<p>Interlochen Arts Academy has a very large number of LGBT students, much more than the statistical 10% of the general population. </p>
<p>But you should attend a school because it meets your overall needs - academics that suit you, size of the school, location, sports/ECs/special programs that you’re interested in, etc. Most boarding schools we’ve learned about are very open and accepting of gay students. That’s what really matters - not how many gay students are “out” in a particular school.</p>
<p>And there are schools that have rolling admissions - Interlochen accepts students through the summer. In fact, a fair number of students attend the Interlochen Arts Camp, and audition/apply while there in the summer to attend starting the following fall semester.</p>
<p>Sexual orientation is not a consideration for admission, but I doubt all schools have the same percentage of gay students. Let’s be real - some schools have a reputation of greater tolerance for LGBT students, and therefore attract more of these students. It may be politically incorrect to say this, but I thought this was utterly obvious as I toured prep schools with my son and colleges with my daughter over the past 2 years. At my son’s prep school, Concord Academy, there is clearly a relatively high percentage of openly gay students. The school is socially liberal, extremely so. Of course you should look at other factors and consider overall fit, but it’s totally understandable that you also want to be where you will feel accepted, and where there is also a community of people who share this important aspect of your being.</p>
<p>I think you need to do some research. A military academy and one founded on “Christian principles” and with a BSA club and Christian Fellowship but no Gay-Straight alliance (or similar club) may not be the best choices for a kid looking for an open, comfortable gay community. In contrast, Concord Academy’s Gay-Straight Alliance is twenty-five years old and the school also has quite a few openly gay faculty. There have been other threads on this topic over the past few. Do a search and you’ll turn up first-hand accounts from kids at a variety of schools.</p>
<p>Here’s an interesting exercise. Go to each school’s website and pop the word “gay” into the search box. At CA you’ll find 4 pages of links- for the GSA, a traveling photography exhibit of LGBTQ teens, celebrations of lesbian and gay teachers, discussions of social equity issues. At Andover I’d imagine you’d get similar results. Unfortunately the search engine for PA’s site seems to be down. I couldn’t get any results for “gay” but I couldn’t get them for “soccer” either. At Woodberry, nada. No hits at all. At Culver the only hits are for the name Gay.
<a href=“You searched for index.aspx - Concord Academy”>You searched for index.aspx - Concord Academy;
<p>BTW, in case I’m giving anyone looking at CA the wrong idea, it’s not the prep school version of the Castro. CA’s just a place that’s pretty comfortable with all kind of diversity, so students don’t seem to need to hide their sexual orientation.</p>
<p>“Prep school version of the Castro.” Ok, that made me chuckle.</p>
<p>To the OP, also look at <em>who</em> is openly gay at any prep school. My gold standard for accepting at this point is openly gay men in positions of responsibility. Schools (and society as a whole) still seem to handle lesbians better than gay men, so the ability to embrace gay men as role models tells you a school has truly created an accepting environment.</p>
<p>And there are plenty of rolling admissions options left. Just do your research.</p>
<p>I also hope I didn’t promote the wrong idea about CA. Both gay and straight kids are comfortable there. My son is straight and totally comfortable at CA, and I love the fact that he can speak openly and casually about gay classmates and teachers.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about Culver or Woodberry, but we visited Andover several times, and had the distinct impression of a socially liberal community. </p>
<p>In general, I’d tend to avoid schools with “Saint” in the name, as well as those with stricter dress codes, but Sue22’s suggestion is ever better.</p>
<p>Thank you so much honoraryamom. I was beginning to think that none of the parents on here understood the OP’s post. It’s great to know that some of the adults still get us kids.</p>
<p>I would imagine that city schools would generally be much more liberal and therefore more likely to have a sizeable gay community. That’s certainly been my experience here, although strangely enough only with the guys. I’m the only openly bi or lesbian girl in my school.</p>
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