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Best DO school for queer students?

Started by guydudcl371
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guydudcl371

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Hey,
So I was wondering if anyone was willing to share any information on what DO schools are queer supportive and what are not. Really wanna hear from current queer medical students/allies or current applicants who are queer...I've heard the jewish medical schools (touro-ca in particular) have had a rocky past with queer students (for example not allowing a queer medical students group to form on campus for several years). Does anyone else have positive or negative experiences? Thanks!
 
You're thinking Touro-NY. But the school doesn't particularly discriminate against gays. Add in the fact that you're there for only 4 hours and in NYC the other 20 and it's not too bad. But in all seriousness its professional school and no one particularly cares about your sexuality. Frankly next weeks anatomy test >>>>> your sexuality in terms of crap's being given.
 
My apologies for the confusion. And as someone who already has a professional degree from a top university...it really doesn't matter haha. You either are in a community that is supportive or your not, the fact that it is a "professional" program in my experience gives little advantage overall. I was just wondering in general if people had any really good or bad experiences at any specific institutions.


serenade said:
You're thinking Touro-NY. But the school doesn't particularly discriminate against gays. Add in the fact that you're there for only 4 hours and in NYC the other 20 and it's not too bad. But in all seriousness its professional school.
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Is 'queer' a word that the gay community itself uses? I've heard this term several times, and to me, it just sounds borderline offensive.
 
TriagePreMed said:
No, he/she is right. Touro-CA had an issue with the GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance). Touro-NY had the issue with selling degrees.
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Then they both had problems with GSA's because I know the guy ( Now a resident) who ranted about not being able to create one was at Touro-NY.
 
JaggerPlate said:
Is 'queer' a word that the gay community itself uses? I've heard this term several times, and to me, it just sounds borderline offensive.
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I think he/she was using that word as an alternative to gay because it traditionally only applied to men and under emphasizes bisexuals and lesbians...
 
I just gave a presentation on this for the Dean of my program. It depends. In the midwest, in academic circles, queer is a very empowering word for the community. In other regions (the southeast for example) it is very offensive period, and furthermore, in some regions, it's only acceptable for queer people to use the word. Just depends...it's confusing, all in all. There really isn't any term that isn't problematic in some way or another...I personally think "gay" is problematic...gay is a single identity and our community is much more diverse than that. It also is using the masculine word to be universal. Similarly to saying "all men are created equal" as opposed to "all people are created equal." But anyway, that's my quick two cents.


JaggerPlate said:
Is 'queer' a word that the gay community itself uses? I've heard this term several times, and to me, it just sounds borderline offensive.
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Yes,
and a piece of advice while we are on the topic, he/she is problematic. 🙂

A term like OP or using my screen name would be preferred. Surely, some people do not identify with either pronoun 🙂

serenade said:
I think he/she was using that word as an alternative to gay because it traditionally only applied to men and under emphasizes bisexuals and lesbians...
Click to expand...
 
This shows a misunderstanding of the issue...sure as far as my education you may be right. My priorities are becoming a doctor not announcing my sexual orientation. But to say that individuals are not treated differently, or experience faculty/staff who are less than supportive in academic circles, because of one's sexual orientation is naive.


serenade said:
Frankly next weeks anatomy test >>>>> your sexuality in terms of crap's being given.
Click to expand...
 
guydudcl371 said:
This shows a misunderstanding of the issue...sure as far as my education you may be right. My priorities are becoming a doctor not announcing my sexual orientation. But to say that individuals are not treated differently, or experience faculty/staff who are less than supportive in academic circles, because of one's sexual orientation is naive.
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1. I'm a psych major. I know the dynamics of interaction. Of course your sexuality can and will be a factor in interaction. Just like being a pizza-face and just like being the nerdy kid in the back who doesn't talk to anyone and everyone assumes to be sketchy. Many things go into social interactions and I personally like to think of that at least in the interaction of intelligent persons and academia that you are away from the majority of discrimination and at least if someone does have a negative attitude they will know that it is socially not acceptable to act out negatively.
2. I'm a homosexual myself. Personally from what I've seen the only people who are seriously impacted negatively by having people know their sexuality are the ones would would have been impacted negatively even if they weren't gay. I.e the extremely annoying types who are seriously in your face. Frankly they piss me off as well.
Your professors after 20+ years of being in academia probably have interacted with plenty of gay people and probably don't care. Your classmates are probably sincerely not going to give 2 flying craps about your sexuality. Especially if you're a smart kid and can actually help them out.
Maybe I'm sheltered with my life right now. But frankly medical school is as sheltered as it gets. I'll tell you right now that i've never had any problems with my sexuality being a target of discrimination in college or academia.



Honestly, I disdain threads like this.
 
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I'm glad you have had a more pleasant experience then. But please do not think your experience is universal, because it is not. I simply posted asking for people to share their experiences and wanted nothing more or less. Thank you for your input.

serenade said:
1. I'm a psych major. I know the dynamics of interaction. Of course your sexuality can and will be a factor in interaction. Just like being a pizza-face and just like being the nerdy kid in the back who doesn't talk to anyone and everyone assumes to be sketchy. Many things go into social interactions and I personally like to think of that at least in the interaction of intelligent persons and academia that you are away from the majority of discrimination and at least if someone does have a negative attitude they will know that it is socially not acceptable to act out negatively.
2. I'm a homosexual myself. Personally from what I've seen the only people who are seriously impacted negatively by having people know their sexuality are the ones would would have been impacted negatively even if they weren't gay. I.e the extremely annoying types who are seriously in your face. Frankly they piss me off as well.
Your professors after 20+ years of being in academia probably have interacted with plenty of gay people and probably don't care. Your classmates are probably sincerely not going to give 2 flying craps about your sexuality. Especially if you're a smart kid and can actually help them out.
Maybe I'm sheltered with my life right now. But frankly medical school is as sheltered as it gets. I'll tell you right now that i've never had any problems with my sexuality being a target of discrimination in college or academia.



Honestly, I disdain threads like this.
Click to expand...
 
guydudcl371 said:
I'm glad you have had a more pleasant experience then. But please do not think your experience is universal, because it is not. I simply posted asking for people to share their experiences and wanted nothing more or less. Thank you for your input.
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I do not. But I can honestly fully generalize that most people will not particularly care about your sexuality especially in the upper levels of academia. There's a reason why academia has been called a bastion of protection for our community.
 
Are you an undergrad?

serenade said:
I do not. But I can honestly fully generalize that most people will not particularly care about your sexuality especially in the upper levels of academia. There's a reason why academia has been called a bastion of protection for our community.
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PCOM!

I don't think its about the school itself but about where it's located. PCOM is in Philly which is very LGBT friendly.
 
UNECOM (Maine) was very LGBT-friendly when I was there and there is no reason to think it would be otherwise now. I'm not gay/queer/homosexual (pick your least offensive description of choice) but a few of my classmates (whom I liked very much) were. I don't know if it was a temporary anomaly, by in my years there, gay women were more common than gay men. Don't know if that matters...
 
serenade said:
I do not. But I can honestly fully generalize that most people will not particularly care about your sexuality especially in the upper levels of academia. There's a reason why academia has been called a bastion of protection for our community.
Click to expand...

This.
 
serenade said:
I do not. But I can honestly fully generalize that most people will not particularly care about your sexuality especially in the upper levels of academia. There's a reason why academia has been called a bastion of protection for our community.
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There is still discrimination of varying degrees wherever you go and there are plenty of studies that have still identified strong discrimination in medical/professional schools against both gay students and faculty.

It's fantastic you have not had any problems but you are making quite a generalization there, and you're also belittling the OP's concern.
 
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vega07 said:
There is still discrimination of varying degrees wherever you go and there are plenty of studies that have still identified strong discrimination in medical/professional schools against both gay students and faculty.

It's fantastic you have not had any problems but you are making quite a generalization there, and you're also belittling the OP's concern.
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Show those studies if you would. I'm not belittling the OP I just seriously believe this is a non-issue in the intellectual community. And I simply cannot imagine just how this could even be a problem unless you're going to Linda Loma ( You cannot attend if you're gay or decline the abstinence form as it is a religious institute).

I don't mean to belittle the OP's concern that was never my interest. I will like to say my beliefs are towards the schools themselves and the students. However the communities which surround the school might be problematic.

Ok to the OP I can see problems with the following schools.
WVSOM : It's rural.
LMU-DCOM : In the middle of nowhere.
VCOM : I think its rural.
KCOM : It's rural.
UNECOM : It's rural.
Pikesvile COM : It's rural.
Rural communities are obviously a little bit less conducive towards homosexuals and what not so avoiding these schools might be better. Touro-NY while having a hard history with gays it's not a problem because you're in NYC which is a great city.
 
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serenade said:
Then they both had problems with GSA's because I know the guy ( Now a resident) who ranted about not being able to create one was at Touro-NY.
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Touro NY doesn't have any residents. we are 3.5 years old. Similarly we can't be selling degrees since we've given zero so far.

hahaha. I love the random garbage that gets attached to us without any factual basis.

but I came here to say that the entire Touro system is prob not the best. They are a very conservative jewish school on a whole and I know touro-NY students were "told" we couldnt have an openly gay society on campus. That changed last year because we simply told them that would be discriminatory and re-applied after the initial applications was denied.

From what i understand our re-application was very persuasive because we have LGBT association on campus now and raise a lot of money for the LGBT community through that position

now with that said, other schools *have* to have an easier time with it. We shouldn't have had to apply more than one time to get that position to exist. Also, as plenty of people have said: you will be SO MUCH MORE BUSY with tests and studying to ever really have anyone care what your sexuality is. We honestly only created it because some of the biggest movers and shakers on campus are homosexual and they just felt it *had* to exist just so someone can specifically be elected to monitor those issues. There wasn't a real demand for it from the decently visible homosexual students.

EDIT: while the school is just 'sufficient' in having a organization that is active and funded (Though not loved by the cranky old coot deans), I should say that NYC is FANTASTIC for the homosexual community. I forgot to count in the manhattan factor.
 
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When visiting Touro-CA for my interview I arrived a few days early to check out the campus on my own. Almost every faculty had a sticker that said "Touro, a safe place" with a rainbow in the background. I think you'll be alright there, even though there was a scandal
 
Thank you all so far who are actually posting responses to my question instead of telling me my discrimination doesn't exist (btw which is called collusion when it comes from a fellow queer and is a form of oppression itself). Keep the personal experiences coming (that was after all what this post was for...)!!!

TILalot said:
When visiting Touro-CA for my interview I arrived a few days early to check out the campus on my own. Almost every faculty had a sticker that said "Touro, a safe place" with a rainbow in the background. I think you'll be alright there, even though there was a scandal
Click to expand...
 
For those who are asking if the term 'queer' is offensive, it isn't within the LGBT community. In fact, many people within these categories like to use LGBTQ to allow for more fluidity between sexual identity/sexual orientation/gender identity. They use 'queer' to refer to those people who don't fit into the categories of gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender/sexual.

But of course, if I say "you're queer" in the "you're dumb/weird/etc" sense, then yes, it's definitely offensive.
 
guydudcl371 said:
Thank you all so far who are actually posting responses to my question instead of telling me my discrimination doesn't exist (btw which is called collusion when it comes from a fellow queer and is a form of oppression itself). Keep the personal experiences coming (that was after all what this post was for...)!!!
Click to expand...

Oh one last thing I forgot to add was, in terms of Touro-CA, after talking to some students, it seems that though the school is "jewish" a lot of the faculty, those running it, and the students are not. Only the New York campus is somewhat religious.
 
TILalot said:
Oh one last thing I forgot to add was, in terms of Touro-CA, after talking to some students, it seems that though the school is "jewish" a lot of the faculty, those running it, and the students are not. Only the New York campus is somewhat religious.
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yea the NY one is def still very religious. Now what does that mean? we make some concessions to them, but outside a doctor wearing a yarmulke and a kosher cafeteria (and event food) the original "orthodox society" has lightened up a ton.
 
guydudcl371 said:
Thank you all so far who are actually posting responses to my question instead of telling me my discrimination doesn't exist (btw which is called collusion when it comes from a fellow queer and is a form of oppression itself). Keep the personal experiences coming (that was after all what this post was for...)!!!
Click to expand...

Didn't say it doesn't exist. I just said that medical school is so sheltered that its rarely going to be a problem. Btw you're using the word collusion wrong. Unless you somehow believe that it is somehow causing me to gain an advantage against you 😕.
Anyways I'm sorry if I was rude and belittled your concern. It's just there are plenty of "queer" MD's & DO's who frequent this site and most of them find medical school to be overly sheltered and be more or less beyond many discriminatory aspects. Those are my two cents, but please don't get the idea that I've got some theory of the mind complex or am in the least self-hating that makes me transfer negative emotions onto you. That is simply not the case, I just truly believe the people over inflate this problem and as shown by many studies, the higher epsilons of education have been "a bastion of looking past gender, sexuality, religion and otherwise non-specified things for a very long time." It's about what you can bring to the table in terms of capacity, not what you do outside in your personal life.

Again I apologize if you felt like my post was rude. I'll admit I'm sheltered myself and I have a strong pre-disposition towards academia, research, and medicine being neutral ground. Through many experiences in my life.
 
I do believe you are gaining an advantage by supporting heterosexist systems and claiming them to be neutral, but nevertheless....let this conversation be done and let us get back to my original post and request for experiences. Yours has been heard. Thank you.

serenade said:
Didn't say it doesn't exist. I just said that medical school is so sheltered that its rarely going to be a problem. Btw you're using the word collusion wrong. Unless you somehow believe that it is somehow causing me to gain an advantage against you 😕.
Anyways I'm sorry if I was rude and belittled your concern. It's just there are plenty of "queer" MD's & DO's who frequent this site and most of them find medical school to be overly sheltered and be more or less beyond many discriminatory aspects. Those are my two cents, but please don't get the idea that I've got some theory of the mind complex or am in the least self-hating that makes me transfer negative emotions onto you. That is simply not the case, I just truly believe the people over inflate this problem and as shown by many studies, the higher epsilons of education have been "a bastion of looking past gender, sexuality, religion and otherwise non-specified things for a very long time." It's about what you can bring to the table in terms of capacity, not what you do outside in your personal life.

Again I apologize if you felt like my post was rude. I'll admit I'm sheltered myself and I have a strong pre-disposition towards academia, research, and medicine being neutral ground. Through many experiences in my life.
Click to expand...
 
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guydudcl371 said:
I do believe you are gaining an advantage by supporting heterosexist systems and claiming them to be neutral, but nevertheless....let this conversation be done and let us get back to my original post and request for experiences. Yours has been heard. Thank you.
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I kinda think you're trolling right there buddy. But its ok. I 😍 u anyways.
 
I didn't have the patience to read every single post so if it has been mentioned before, I apologize. From my brief experience at AZCOM, it seems that they are pretty LGBT friendly. At lunch time when we sat in the cafeteria there was an LGBT student org holding some sort of event/awareness thing? I'm not really sure, it was like a video up on a projector or something I didn't really pay much attention. However, I think that shows how accepting the school is. Hope that helps.
 
I'm going to stick up for my school here...
Just because KCOM is in Kirksville, doesn't mean its backwards and sheltered. I have classmates that are homosexual. I have never seen discrimination towards them. I can't speak for interactions in the community but I have never heard about anything going on.

Truman State is a D-II university here in town where I'm sure there are people of every race, creed, lifestyle and I haven't heard of any sort of incidents against them.

serenade said:
Show those studies if you would. I'm not belittling the OP I just seriously believe this is a non-issue in the intellectual community. And I simply cannot imagine just how this could even be a problem unless you're going to Linda Loma ( You cannot attend if you're gay or decline the abstinence form as it is a religious institute).

I don't mean to belittle the OP's concern that was never my interest. I will like to say my beliefs are towards the schools themselves and the students. However the communities which surround the school might be problematic.

Ok to the OP I can see problems with the following schools.
WVSOM : It's rural.
LMU-DCOM : In the middle of nowhere.
VCOM : I think its rural.
KCOM : It's rural.
UNECOM : It's rural.
Pikesvile COM : It's rural.
Rural communities are obviously a little bit less conducive towards homosexuals and what not so avoiding these schools might be better. Touro-NY while having a hard history with gays it's not a problem because you're in NYC which is a great city.
Click to expand...
 
dani042 said:
I'm going to stick up for my school here...
Just because KCOM is in Kirksville, doesn't mean its backwards and sheltered. I have classmates that are homosexual. I have never seen discrimination towards them. I can't speak for interactions in the community but I have never heard about anything going on.

Truman State is a D-II university here in town where I'm sure there are people of every race, creed, lifestyle and I haven't heard of any sort of incidents against them.
Click to expand...


Like I said in every other post I made on this thread. The schools themselves are not a source of the problem. Most educational institutes are relatively blind to their students backgrounds. However a rural community usually isn't conducive towards homosexuals. But its not an extremely horrible thing.
 
I know that Western in Pomona, CA was friendly towards the gay/queer classmates of my sister's PA program. Their DO program isn't likely to be much different.
 
What a sad world we live in where a person needs to worry about discrimination/violence because they love someone that others don't approve of thanks to a text written over 1000 years ago.
 
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I'm also gay myself. I have 2 interviews scheduled. One for LECOM-Erie and the other for KCOM(on the 10th). I think that being gay makes you self conscious of it and therefore you make it an issue. I'm guilty of it too! I've shadowed 2 gay doctors and they said that it has NEVER been an issue in either medical school or in their profession. Being gay CAN be a benefit to being a physician. It can teach you to be more understanding and not judge people. I think as long as you don't push it into people's faces, then they should be fine with it. I go to Ohio University for my undergrad degree and I can say that it is a very friendly campus, so I can recommend OUCOM to be LGBT friendly. I just hope wherever I go to school I'm not the token gay guy. Best of luck to you all!
 
Asking the forum, as you have sure realized brings forth little valuable information. The debate regarding whether discrimination still exists is astonishing and to think it doesnt is naive.

Personally I have been advised by two medical school deans that bigots still exist in academia and disclosing my sexuality during the interview process would be a risk.

Your best bet is to find out from the schools if they have a GSA or LGBTQ group on campus. Contact members of the group and get the scoop from them. This often includes both faculty and staff.
 
NYCOM, I think, is gay-friendly as far as the student body/faculty/the people that you'll actually be interacting with are concerned.

And the area, obviously, is very gay-friendly (the New York metro area, hello!) It may not be in the middle of the city (although I wouldn't call Touro's immediate surrounding area of Harlem gay-friendly by any means), but in New York, suburbia doesn't necessarily = intolerance like it seems to in many areas.

I've heard before, however, that students aren't allowed to form GSA groups, etc - not sure how true this is.
 
"Being gay CAN be a benefit to being a physician. It can teach you to be more understanding and not judge people."

This thread is so ridiculous. Most people (students/future docs) at any of DO schools aren't going to care about your sexuality. I seriously doubt most staff will either. Just don't show up with rainbow scrubs while riding a purple pony and nobody will care one way or the other.
 
Nobody is really going to care at the medical school. NSU has Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, so if the OP is really that concerned this is LGBTQ friendly. NSU is very diverse, as is the area. I feel that almost every DO school won't have an issue with someone's sexuality. This is med school, most people are more mature than undergrads.
 
kcin said:
Just don't show up with rainbow scrubs while riding a purple pony and nobody will care one way or the other.
Click to expand...

Awesome.

Anyway, homosexuality isn't going to an issue. I get emails for LGBT events all the time, and there are many openly homosexual students in my class. I'm not gay by the way, not that it matters, hah.
 
Thank you for some solid advice! 🙂


pdeco1 said:
Asking the forum, as you have sure realized brings forth little valuable information. The debate regarding whether discrimination still exists is astonishing and to think it doesnt is naive.

Personally I have been advised by two medical school deans that bigots still exist in academia and disclosing my sexuality during the interview process would be a risk.

Your best bet is to find out from the schools if they have a GSA or LGBTQ group on campus. Contact members of the group and get the scoop from them. This often includes both faculty and staff.
Click to expand...
 
guydudcl371 said:
Hey,
So I was wondering if anyone was willing to share any information on what DO schools are queer supportive and what are not. Really wanna hear from current queer medical students/allies or current applicants who are queer...I've heard the jewish medical schools (touro-ca in particular) have had a rocky past with queer students (for example not allowing a queer medical students group to form on campus for several years). Does anyone else have positive or negative experiences? Thanks!
Click to expand...


As a gay transsexual who wants to add some DO schools to my application list for next year and thus is very concerned about this issue, I looked at employment non-discrimination I can tell you that this is what I found...

ATSU-com protects orientation, not identity
AZ-Com does not protect orientation or gender identity
CCOM I couldn't find any information
GA-PCOM protects orientation, not identity
Nova protects orientation, not identity
 
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