<p>I met a friend for breakfast recently and we were discussing her wonderful son, who is like a son to me. He’s a junior this year and beginning his college search. He is a wonderfully smart young man but he isn’t super self-motivated. He’s a fun kid who gets along with everyone and is very laid back. I expect his SAT scores will be very good by most standards, good by CC standards and his grades are quite good but not fully reflective of his abilities.</p>
<p>He told his parents recently that he is gay and they want to make sure he is in a safe supportive environment when he goes to school. Not too small and preferably in the Northeast. Not rural.</p>
<p>Do you all have any suggestions I can pass along for them?</p>
<p>Except for a few colleges with strong religious affiliations, I don’t know of any school in the Northeast that wouldn’t be comfortable for a gay student.</p>
<p>I see you’re in Maryland. If he is, too, your flagship state university would be a good place to consider. UMCP has an active gay community (along with active every-other-type-of-communities that you can possibly imagine).</p>
<p>I understand your friend’s concerns as my son is gay as well. There are many places on-line that have top ten lists of gay-friendly campuses and such but I agree with Marian. Our experience during the touring colleges part of the process was that every college we visited, from New Jersey up to Massachusetts, spoke about having a safe campus for gay or lesbian students. They all offered at least one club that was either political or social (or both) in nature and most campuses had several clubs to chose from. They all spoke of having campus security/police trained to deal with gay/lesbian students and, god forbid, hate crimes. </p>
<p>My son landed at Northeastern in Boston. He absolutely loves it, loves Boston and feels very safe there as a gay man (of course, it is a city so he is cautious too.) </p>
<p>Best of luck to your friend and her son. You are a good friend to help out.</p>