Sweet bajeezus, the ignorance floating around this thread is ridiculous. I love seeing straight pre-meds weigh in on the ins and outs of being gay in med school. Shut up unless you can speak intelligently about the subject, or maybe at least have 1 gay friend before you start espousing how it "really is" for gays in medicine.
OP, you hit the nail on the head - there are a million gay psychiatrists for whatever reason. There are 5-10 out gay folks per class in my class of 150, so fairly good odds. For whatever reason, there are always fewer out women, but that just runs on my theory that the lesbian community tends to be less out, but also less easy to be outed. Feel free to text me any Qs on being gay in med school. Some specialties certainly attract different types. I'm pretty type A and going into surgery. I'm a little nervous about it, but I think one's personality has a lot more to do with the fit than one's sexuality. Of the 7 out folks in my school's last graduating class that I know, 2 went into ENT, 2 into Plastics, 1 into IM, 1 into Optho, and 1 went into Peds. As you can see, the supposedly super straight categorical Surgery is getting a lot gayer these days 😉
ThirdEye, a few pointers:
1) You're viewpoint of "openly gay" and "openly straight" makes you sound like someone from Alabama in the 80's. It's almost 2010. You out yourself as a straight man everyday and don't even realize it. Others have eloquently explained how.
2) Get used to gay people. In medicine and medical education these days, homophobia is simply not tolerated. There's a reason why med schools want altruistic, diverse, caring people, and you're not displaying any of these traits in your limited comments. Make some changes by interview time or you may be staring at a pile of rejections come springtime.
3) Get used to people who aren't like you. You're going to be encountering patients who are Christians, Jews, Muslims Buddhists and atheists, Whites and Blacks and Latinos and Asians, drug users, straight edgers, abstainers and drunks, rich and poor and homeless. If you can't handle a gay man in your class mentioning his boyfriend, how are you going to handle patient telling you about their drug habit? If you approach with judgement they won't tell you, and you'll miss the diagnosis - making you look like an idiot, or having the patient suffer.
DocJohnson
There are certainly plenty of out women at my school. As I've said before, homophobia is just not acceptable in medicine anymore. I think there's a whole lot more sexism in medicine than there is prejudice against LGB women. I've had plenty of out women professors and attendings in Psych, ID, EM, Trauma, and the list goes on. Are there likely to be some obstacles? Sure, but it's not like we went into medicine because it was easy.
Others:
-"Faking" being gay for URM status is a ridiculous claim. People could certainly "fake" being a URM just as easily. This is the same logic that prevents gays from having same-sex health benefits. It's illogical. I'd be happy to explain why on a different thread.
-Most med schools do not accept homophobia at all. At UPenn for instance, I've never encountered any prejudice or homophobia. If I ever did, there are multiple channels to report it and the school would have my back. Get used to gay folks in your classes, and stop dropping this preconception of "effeminant" men. One of your profs or classmates is bound to be gay and you might end up with egg on your face.
Side note - YES! it's really hard dating in med school. My straight roommate has a similarly difficult time though. There's just not enough time, and for whatever reason your standards start to shift up when in medicine.
