My alma mater - The Pennsylvania State University - has just received a perfect 5 stars in Campus Pride's annual survey which ranks colleges on their LGBT friendliness. GO PENN STATE!!
I must say, I'm a little surprised. When I was a big-ole closet case during my 6 (count 'em!) years at Penn State, the university and the student body at large were not particularly tolerant of gay people. There was a Gay & Lesbian Student Alliance (and a gay bar across from campus), but that's about it. In fact, while I was closeted I can't remember meeting any openly gay people in all of my travels. Of course I encountered (cough cough ... SO TO SPEAK) many other closet cases like myself - and after graduation I learned that many of my closest "straight" friends in college were actually gay. But none of us felt comfortable enough to come out during our time at Penn State.
I'm really happy to see things have changed.
Once upon a time, when I was in college a looooong time ago (class of '78!) our communications professor invited a member of the college gay group to talk to us about trends in advertising and smart companies targeting the demographic. Freaked the heck out of the frat boys (big babies but was really interesting and I've watched the growth of the market ever since.
ReplyDeleteWay to go, Penn State!
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