Comments on: Gay Men on Campus: Smart, Studious, Involved

By: Black + Male + Educated = Gay « The Soleblog

Black + Male + Educated = Gay « The Soleblog — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:03:11 +0000

[...] stumbled upon this June 2009 article on Miller-McCune’s Web site recently. In short, studies show that gay men place more important on education and academic [...]

By: Anonymous User

Anonymous User — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:20:58 +0000

I’m the same college instructor who posted below, and I have a few points I’d like to bring up for discussion.There could be some truth to the idea that gays study more to hide the fact that they’re not dating girls. However, my impression is that many gays wish very much to have a long-term, nurturing, meaningful relationship of the type that heterosexuals are encouraged to have. Our society makes it as hard as possible for them to establish or maintain such relationships. My guess is that the conflicts and heartache that ensue waste quite a bit of the time and emotional energy of gays, as does the time they spend dealing with issues of denial and secrecy. Thus, I don’t think their sexuality puts them at a net competitive advantage for excelling scholastically.There could also be some truth to idea that gays are more creative because they have suffered more. However, I believe the sad truth is that many gays are broken by their suffering. They resort to alcohol, drugs, and promiscuity because society tries to deny them the love and acceptance that everyone craves. Society tries to force them to live a life that is a lie, and society tries to consider their very essence to be inferior. I think we should be careful not to give the impression that discrimination against gays is positive in any way.I think it is true that gays are more interested in public service. Although it’s conceivable that they engage in public service to meet gays, as I’ve seen suggested, the looking-for-dates scenario would seem just as applicable to heterosexuals. I wouldn’t expect that to be the primary reason that gays are more active in social movements. Their own suffering is a possible contributor, but I don’t think that other minority groups that have suffered have tended to become disproportionately involved in movements other than their own.There seems little doubt that gays are more likely to be interested in the arts than heterosexuals. We could argue that this is because they have suffered or that it is to hide the fact that they’re not dating females. However, my discussions with gays suggest they were more interested in the arts from their earliest memories. This leads me to suspect that it is not a difference that they have adopted to cope with their homosexuality but rather is an inborn aspect of their natures.In short, I think there are real, innate differences in gays that would be interesting to study. Of course there are crude, stupid gays just as there are such individuals in any group, and those individuals probably don’t come to my attention. I tend to notice the outstanding members of my class, and what I notice is that a strikingly large number of them are gay. I suspect that ON AVERAGE, gays tend to be more sensitive, creative, and intellectually gifted in large part simply because they were born that way. Gays don’t wear self-identifiers, so despite my interaction with very large numbers of students, I can’t evaluate this trend as well as I would like. It has just jumped out at me. I’m surprised that more research hasn’t been done on the topic, although it’s probably politically charged. If anyone knows of any such research or has any comments to make, I’d be very interested.

By: Anonymous User

Anonymous User — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 18:21:31 +0000

This article makes me feel so good about myself? I’m gay and i’m going to college next year and i’m gonna be able to come out. Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.Anyway, i think that oppression of the gay community has caused us to be more mature more aware and more creative. It sucks to be homophobic.

By: Anonymous User

Anonymous User — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:09:14 +0000

My apologies to the author for my previous posting. Apparently the comment I objected to was made in a lead-in article, not by this author.

By: Anonymous User

Anonymous User — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:49:26 +0000

I’ve taught biology to thousands of pre-med and pre-pharm college freshmen in the past five years, and, being an older woman, I didn’t know the first thing about gays when I started (they didn’t exist when I was young —- or so it seemed). Over the years, I have become intrigued by a totally unexpected observation. It appears to me there is simply a disproportionately high percentage of unusually bright and creative people in the gay population. Some of them may work harder than average, that’s true, but it’s more than that. I’ve seen more just plain raw potential in this group. Now, it’s possible that I notice it more because I do think they are more likely to establish mentor-mentee relationships with me. That’s a good thing, and it occurs because they are uncommonly strong communicators. The comment about sexual favors made in this article is highly insulting and completely wrong. These students are jewels, pure and simple, and the suffering our society imposes on them is criminal.

By: Anonymous User

Anonymous User — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:44:01 +0000

In the book, “The Velvet Rage” it proposes that gay men are more motivated to do better in life (education, work achievements, etc.) because of a desire to prove to the world, their self-worth and/or value. I can see how his hypothesis rings true through this research data. I highly doubt that it has anything to do with Brownsey’s conclusion in general. Remember, we are talking about college, not high school. At my undergraduate insitution, the gay men and lesbians virtually ran the campus through all the leaderships positions, in Student Government, University Housing, and the Office of Leadership and Volunteer Services.

By: Paul Brownsey

Paul Brownsey — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:56:30 +0000

The article doesn’t mention what, on the basis of my own experience, would appear to be a very plausible explanation of why gay students do better academically, namely, that if you’re gay and anxious about being taunted for not going out with people of the other gender, then being an academic type who ‘doesn’t have time for all that’ is a good refuge. This may kick in at pre-college level and carry over to college. I remember the relief at overhearing a relative say, “Paul hasn’t got time for girls – he has all this studying to do,” and realised (since at that point I wasn’t ready to start looking for a gay relationship) I had the perfect excuse.

By: Chris Gerlica

Chris Gerlica — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:57:22 +0000

I would just like to inform of how offensive one of the quotes in this article is.The section: “Gay men also spend 40 to 50 percent more time doing volunteer work or participating in student organizations, according to Carpenter’s findings. “It’s possible that these organizations they belong to could include fraternities,” he said. “But I doubt that, because gay men were less likely to say participating in parties was important to them.”"This section is very stereotypical and ignorant to the Greek community. I say this as a gay man who joined a Fraternity(later even becoming my chapter’s president). Greek life is not all about parties, but our main goals center around academic achievement and helping our communities. I am very disappointed that Christopher Carter knows nothing about Greek life past the movie Animal House, and that there is no counter-point to this statement within the article.