About one-quarter of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and university employees have been harassed on college campuses across the country because of their sexual orientations, according to a new survey.
The report, issued on Sept. 13 by LGBT advocacy group Campus Pride, found bigotry toward LGBT students in primary and secondary schools often continues at the college level.
The study, titled "The 2010 State of Higher Education for LGBT People," surveyed 5,150 individuals from more than 100 universities across the country.
Despite Campus Pride's findings, American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts spokesman Christopher Ott said very few cases of harassment toward LGBT students on college campuses are brought to the organization.
"Most of the people that come to us with cases of bigotry or hate toward gay and lesbian students are at the middle and high school level," Ott said. "It may be because we live in a fairly open-minded state, but we've had to deal with very few cases on college campuses."
Jordan Rossman, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said homophobia at Boston University is "a complete non-issue."
"BU's almost laughably welcoming," he said. "I didn't come out when I was in high school and when I came here, within a month I came out and it wasn't a big deal at all."
However, Rossman said he did experience hostility during an Alternative Spring Break trip his freshman year in Washington, D.C.
"This one night we were staying in this kind of questionable area. . . at night me and my group were approached by this guy who started talking to us and he asked if I was a faggot and I didn't know how to respond to that," he said. "It wasn't that I was insulted, but it made me appreciate the fact that no one at BU would come up to me and say that."
Other BU students agreed that overt acts of hate and bigotry toward LGBT students are absent on BU's campus.
"If you go to a liberal school like BU, you don't see a lot of unfair treatment of gay students," said College of Communication junior Megan Lovallo.
While Lovallo said she doesn't see discrimination toward the LGBT community at BU, she said she believes bigotry does exist on campuses around the country.
"I could see where harassment could come up at different kinds of universities," she said.
College of Arts and Sciences senior Erik Olson said BU seems to be a "really accepting" place for LGBT students.
"I'm in the gospel choir and there is a LGBT group within the choir that announces things to do with their group and everyone is super chill and happy to hear what they say," he said.
Ian Hatfield, a School of Management junior, said though he doesn't think of BU as an unfriendly atmosphere for LGBT students, he understands where some level of bigotry could infiltrate what is otherwise an extremely liberal university.
"I don't think there's a lot [of hate] around BU, but adults influence their kids which could bring some bigotry onto campus," he said.
COM junior Rick Sobey said in his three years at BU, he hasn't noticed any open act of hate toward gay or lesbian students.
"I'm obviously not witnessing everything around campus, but I am a junior and have never seen a hate crime directed at gay people," he said.
"There's an awareness and appreciation at BU and it's a really healthy environment," Rossman said.
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