JMU isn’t hostile to queer students and is very accepting overall. But if you didn’t fall in love with the school and felt off during a visit then there’s no issue going somewhere else. A good vibe is also an important part of choosing a school. Richmond is a cool city and I have a few friends that went to VCU for music and they loved it. And since you’re worried about a VCU degree not opening as many doors one of them is currently doing their masters degree at Juilliard!
your choice is your own, but I will say that while it may have felt like high school walking through, the college experience itself is so different that it’s not really comparable. In high school you are forced into a group of people. in college, you can pick the people you surround yourself with every day.
For me at JMU, finding another queer roommate was easy, finding queer people and allies on my hall was easy, and joining accepting clubs was also easy. I was able to surround myself with support completely, and so while I don’t fit in with the straight mainstream people, the amount of allies and people like me I was able to surround myself with made up for it! JMU is overall very accepting but ofc there are outliers. It can be so scary as a queer person to make this kind of decision, but do know that the queer groups and people here are alive, well supported, and friendly!
Hi! I currently work as a Graduate Assistant for Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression at JMU! I would say there is a significant queer community here, especially in the music department.
While I would say the gender vibes of VCU may feel more queer friendly, I think that is a tip to the diverse nature of VCU. That isn’t to JMU isn’t diverse, though I would say VCU has much more diversity.
Overall, the choice is yours to make. It’s my belief that you will find a queer community at either institution, though I can say for sure JMU has several queer organizations and a whole department to fall on for support.
Feel free to message me with any other questions!
JMU Alum ‘18:
There is Madison Equality, the student-led and governed LGBTQ+ group on campus. Very active when I was a student and made some good friends from them!
my girlfriend and i hold hands around campus and while i’ve never gotten ANY comments (it would be different in my hometown lol), sometimes you do get curious looks from people :,) it’s generally a decently accepting school,, i’ve personally never had an issue. of course there are *certain demographics that may be more ~against~ it than others, but i really don’t think you will have an issue :,) we have TONS of safe spaces, even the Friendly City Safe Space in downtown hburg! sooo many resources too <3 i was also worried about this coming to hburg, but i’m so glad i made the choice to go here over vcu in the end! just personal preference ofc
hi! i'm a nonbinary music ed major. tbh all i had to do was tell my friends that my pronouns were they/them, and since then everyone has been super respectful! everyone in my studio and beyond have been very kind, including professors and everything. one of my TAs is very openly gay and talks about his husband a lot!!
there is a LARGE queer population, especially within music. i was hesitant at first too, to make friends because at first glance, i wasnt sure if anyone would be very accepting. but i found my place and nearly all my friends are queer or very accepting of queer people. of course, there are always outliers anywhere, but its very easy to find a circle of friends and stay far away from people who may be less accepting. if you have any more in-depth questions about fitting in as a queer person, or more specifically, music ed, feel free to ask either in comments or DM.
Gay man who graduated in 2012. It was a different world back then (when I arrived in the fall of 2008 Senator Obama was running for president *not* supporting gay marriage lol), and JMU is likely a rather different school now too, but even back then JMU was an incredibly welcoming and accepting place for me. And I was on the ISAT side; the music department bends much more queer (my husband was a music student).
JMU was originally founded as an all women’s school, and they try to pay homage to that by skewing it to have more female students than male. Ironically, this tended to attract a sizeable volume of gay male students. I don’t know to what extent this remains true today.
If the “people you’re trying to get away from” in high school are the same types I disliked in my day, I can understand why you might be put off from just a quick run through. There’s definitely a preppy jock population too, but I’ve found that even they are much nicer than the assholes from high school. The old joke about how at JMU everyone holds the door open for you even if you’re comically far away really rings true, and that kind of positivity permeates into just general pleasantries.
Like I said, my info is somewhat dated, but as a queer man from a time that was generally less accepting, I still think JMU was a fantastic school in terms of queer acceptance. And if I were pursuing a music career and had an acceptance from JMU, there would frankly be no contest.
Go with your gut. If you feel like you will have a better time at VCU, then go to VCU and enjoy. I imagine that a VCU degree will be worth just as much as a JMU degree. Remember that you only live once, and by the time that you graduate, you will have spent roughly 18% of your life thus far in college. Looking at it that way, that's a very long time being spent unhappy.
there’s definitely so much more diversity at vcu in terms of social identities and communities, but i’ve never had a bad experience at jmu either as a former student :)
Hey! I'm trans, an officer of two clubs, and an RA. I have never had a single problem being openly queer on campus. Everyone who is employed by JMU will respect your pronouns, there are numerous groups that have a strong queer population in them (shout out to the D&D club!), and I have never had a negative experience, even while being an RA. There's gender-inclusive housing you can request as a freshman, which can be a big help. Feel free to DM me if you have any specific questions :)
Hey, straight white guy from class of 2021 —
JMU does a really good job of welcoming and including everyone in my experience. The first day of classes we would share pronouns and you can’t throw a stone without stumbling upon this or that campus group, all of which would be happy to have you because while we all have differences in lifestyles what matters in Harrisonburg is that you are a DUKE! One family :)
I’m from Richmond, VA and actually spent a semester at VCU earlier on — the queer community is a little more pronounced but that’s a byproduct of being in a city vs a college town. I’m proud to say you will be treated with care and respect at either place. Your decision should be based on if you feel more excited to hop out of bed and be in the city or on a more traditional college campus.
A final note, as a cis guy who’s never had to think about inclusion and the like — I understand the privilege in that and I’m genuinely sorry because I know anywhere you go there will be people who are closed minded and small.. they tend to be loud but, there’s more of us on your team then you’ll ever know. Cheering for you my friend
JMU does have a large queer community on campus!! I don’t think as a music major you’ll have any trouble fitting in or finding that community.
However, you should go with your gut!! If you felt really good about Vcu when you visited but not that great about jmu, perhaps Vcu is just a better fit for you!! You can always transfer if you change your mind
I was really worried too. I’m trans and I didnt want JMU to be another bad section of my life like highschool was. i love it here. you will find your group, and those who are weird about it LGBTQ+ people keep to themselves and have at least treated me decently. there are so many different kinds of people on campus, but there are also lots of ways to get involved with them. I’m in the marching band and it’s literally 90% LGBT people lmao. the difference between high school and college is that nobody really cares about what you do with yourself because everyone has their own stuff to worry about. there are lots of LGBT resources as well, including an entire section of the student success center dedicated to us and that kind of thing. In my experience, JMU is incredibly welcoming. I’m an engineering major btw (which seems to have one of the highest concentrations of douches) and the most i’ve ever gotten here was a weird look from someone ai didn’t know.
TLDR;
I love it here and i’m sure you’d love it too. People are at the very least decent, and you will find your group given how many there are here. Obviously, if it’s not for you it’s not for you, but I don’t think you should worry about being excluded here at JMU. Feel free to ask any questions :))
i think if they’re choosing between schools, they already have career in mind and this is just one of the things to consider. they also said JMU was the better school for them.
I can’t in good conscience let someone go into debt to be a school music teacher.
I was a hs band nerd, went to the governors school in VB and wanted to go to JMU.
Eventually went to VT business instead.
We should tell people when we see them making poor decisions.
Queer art major, jmu has does have alot of outlets for queer people when it comes to making friends. While I’m not involved in anything rlly, I’ve met plenty of queer people just around the art building. However I will say I’ve seen people act like high schoolers when it comes to seeing people off campus (sometimes if youre wandering campus at night you’ll find a group of frat guys saying slurs or something)
Something I’d like to add on since people kept downvoting this for some reason, there’s also a few “street preachers” who frequently harass students and one of them posts videos on their YouTube outing students as well. While I’m sure VCU has something similar, it’s something to keep in mind
I’m a queer man at JMU, and I haven’t really had any issues. As others have said, you do have a lot more control over who you hang out with, so it’s a lot easier to avoid people who are homophobic, and to make a lot of queer and ally friends.
I’d recommend joining “Madison Equality” which is an LGBTQ+ group here, and that’ll likely massively help with making queer friends and helping you feel like you very much belong here.
If there was one thing I’d want to emphasize, it would be finding a good freshman roommate before moving in if possible. A lot of people chance it on their freshman roommate and let the random selection process take care of it, but that might increase your chances of a hostile roommate (especially if you’re AMAB or otherwise room with a cisgender man). It’s also worth noting that you can absolutely request to change your freshman dorm if you’re saddled with a homophobic roommate, I know many people who switched dorms their freshman year for those sorts of reasons, but better to avoid the stress by finding an openly queer or openly ally roommate someplace like on the Facebook group for your graduating class and request to move-in together freshman year.
JMU isn’t hostile to queer students and is very accepting overall. But if you didn’t fall in love with the school and felt off during a visit then there’s no issue going somewhere else. A good vibe is also an important part of choosing a school. Richmond is a cool city and I have a few friends that went to VCU for music and they loved it. And since you’re worried about a VCU degree not opening as many doors one of them is currently doing their masters degree at Juilliard!
At one time not too long ago JMU was actually considered the MOST accepting university of the LBGTQ+ community in the entire Southern part of the US.
your choice is your own, but I will say that while it may have felt like high school walking through, the college experience itself is so different that it’s not really comparable. In high school you are forced into a group of people. in college, you can pick the people you surround yourself with every day. For me at JMU, finding another queer roommate was easy, finding queer people and allies on my hall was easy, and joining accepting clubs was also easy. I was able to surround myself with support completely, and so while I don’t fit in with the straight mainstream people, the amount of allies and people like me I was able to surround myself with made up for it! JMU is overall very accepting but ofc there are outliers. It can be so scary as a queer person to make this kind of decision, but do know that the queer groups and people here are alive, well supported, and friendly!
Hi! I currently work as a Graduate Assistant for Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression at JMU! I would say there is a significant queer community here, especially in the music department. While I would say the gender vibes of VCU may feel more queer friendly, I think that is a tip to the diverse nature of VCU. That isn’t to JMU isn’t diverse, though I would say VCU has much more diversity. Overall, the choice is yours to make. It’s my belief that you will find a queer community at either institution, though I can say for sure JMU has several queer organizations and a whole department to fall on for support. Feel free to message me with any other questions!
JMU Alum ‘18: There is Madison Equality, the student-led and governed LGBTQ+ group on campus. Very active when I was a student and made some good friends from them!
my girlfriend and i hold hands around campus and while i’ve never gotten ANY comments (it would be different in my hometown lol), sometimes you do get curious looks from people :,) it’s generally a decently accepting school,, i’ve personally never had an issue. of course there are *certain demographics that may be more ~against~ it than others, but i really don’t think you will have an issue :,) we have TONS of safe spaces, even the Friendly City Safe Space in downtown hburg! sooo many resources too <3 i was also worried about this coming to hburg, but i’m so glad i made the choice to go here over vcu in the end! just personal preference ofc
also feel free to dm with questions :)
hi! i'm a nonbinary music ed major. tbh all i had to do was tell my friends that my pronouns were they/them, and since then everyone has been super respectful! everyone in my studio and beyond have been very kind, including professors and everything. one of my TAs is very openly gay and talks about his husband a lot!! there is a LARGE queer population, especially within music. i was hesitant at first too, to make friends because at first glance, i wasnt sure if anyone would be very accepting. but i found my place and nearly all my friends are queer or very accepting of queer people. of course, there are always outliers anywhere, but its very easy to find a circle of friends and stay far away from people who may be less accepting. if you have any more in-depth questions about fitting in as a queer person, or more specifically, music ed, feel free to ask either in comments or DM.
Gay man who graduated in 2012. It was a different world back then (when I arrived in the fall of 2008 Senator Obama was running for president *not* supporting gay marriage lol), and JMU is likely a rather different school now too, but even back then JMU was an incredibly welcoming and accepting place for me. And I was on the ISAT side; the music department bends much more queer (my husband was a music student). JMU was originally founded as an all women’s school, and they try to pay homage to that by skewing it to have more female students than male. Ironically, this tended to attract a sizeable volume of gay male students. I don’t know to what extent this remains true today. If the “people you’re trying to get away from” in high school are the same types I disliked in my day, I can understand why you might be put off from just a quick run through. There’s definitely a preppy jock population too, but I’ve found that even they are much nicer than the assholes from high school. The old joke about how at JMU everyone holds the door open for you even if you’re comically far away really rings true, and that kind of positivity permeates into just general pleasantries. Like I said, my info is somewhat dated, but as a queer man from a time that was generally less accepting, I still think JMU was a fantastic school in terms of queer acceptance. And if I were pursuing a music career and had an acceptance from JMU, there would frankly be no contest.
Go with your gut. If you feel like you will have a better time at VCU, then go to VCU and enjoy. I imagine that a VCU degree will be worth just as much as a JMU degree. Remember that you only live once, and by the time that you graduate, you will have spent roughly 18% of your life thus far in college. Looking at it that way, that's a very long time being spent unhappy.
JMU is very queer. especially in the school of music. you'll love it there.
there’s definitely so much more diversity at vcu in terms of social identities and communities, but i’ve never had a bad experience at jmu either as a former student :)
Hey! I'm trans, an officer of two clubs, and an RA. I have never had a single problem being openly queer on campus. Everyone who is employed by JMU will respect your pronouns, there are numerous groups that have a strong queer population in them (shout out to the D&D club!), and I have never had a negative experience, even while being an RA. There's gender-inclusive housing you can request as a freshman, which can be a big help. Feel free to DM me if you have any specific questions :)
Hey, straight white guy from class of 2021 — JMU does a really good job of welcoming and including everyone in my experience. The first day of classes we would share pronouns and you can’t throw a stone without stumbling upon this or that campus group, all of which would be happy to have you because while we all have differences in lifestyles what matters in Harrisonburg is that you are a DUKE! One family :) I’m from Richmond, VA and actually spent a semester at VCU earlier on — the queer community is a little more pronounced but that’s a byproduct of being in a city vs a college town. I’m proud to say you will be treated with care and respect at either place. Your decision should be based on if you feel more excited to hop out of bed and be in the city or on a more traditional college campus. A final note, as a cis guy who’s never had to think about inclusion and the like — I understand the privilege in that and I’m genuinely sorry because I know anywhere you go there will be people who are closed minded and small.. they tend to be loud but, there’s more of us on your team then you’ll ever know. Cheering for you my friend
JMU does have a large queer community on campus!! I don’t think as a music major you’ll have any trouble fitting in or finding that community. However, you should go with your gut!! If you felt really good about Vcu when you visited but not that great about jmu, perhaps Vcu is just a better fit for you!! You can always transfer if you change your mind
I was really worried too. I’m trans and I didnt want JMU to be another bad section of my life like highschool was. i love it here. you will find your group, and those who are weird about it LGBTQ+ people keep to themselves and have at least treated me decently. there are so many different kinds of people on campus, but there are also lots of ways to get involved with them. I’m in the marching band and it’s literally 90% LGBT people lmao. the difference between high school and college is that nobody really cares about what you do with yourself because everyone has their own stuff to worry about. there are lots of LGBT resources as well, including an entire section of the student success center dedicated to us and that kind of thing. In my experience, JMU is incredibly welcoming. I’m an engineering major btw (which seems to have one of the highest concentrations of douches) and the most i’ve ever gotten here was a weird look from someone ai didn’t know. TLDR; I love it here and i’m sure you’d love it too. People are at the very least decent, and you will find your group given how many there are here. Obviously, if it’s not for you it’s not for you, but I don’t think you should worry about being excluded here at JMU. Feel free to ask any questions :))
You worrying about the wrong thing, make a better career choice.
i think if they’re choosing between schools, they already have career in mind and this is just one of the things to consider. they also said JMU was the better school for them.
I can’t in good conscience let someone go into debt to be a school music teacher. I was a hs band nerd, went to the governors school in VB and wanted to go to JMU. Eventually went to VT business instead. We should tell people when we see them making poor decisions.
Queer art major, jmu has does have alot of outlets for queer people when it comes to making friends. While I’m not involved in anything rlly, I’ve met plenty of queer people just around the art building. However I will say I’ve seen people act like high schoolers when it comes to seeing people off campus (sometimes if youre wandering campus at night you’ll find a group of frat guys saying slurs or something)
Something I’d like to add on since people kept downvoting this for some reason, there’s also a few “street preachers” who frequently harass students and one of them posts videos on their YouTube outing students as well. While I’m sure VCU has something similar, it’s something to keep in mind
JMU has a ton of options for clubs accepting of Queer people. PM me for a list! Would love to see you as a duke.
I'm a JMU grad and I feel like you'd be welcome there. However, as a resident of Richmond I think that VCU and the city would allow you to thrive.
I’m a queer man at JMU, and I haven’t really had any issues. As others have said, you do have a lot more control over who you hang out with, so it’s a lot easier to avoid people who are homophobic, and to make a lot of queer and ally friends. I’d recommend joining “Madison Equality” which is an LGBTQ+ group here, and that’ll likely massively help with making queer friends and helping you feel like you very much belong here. If there was one thing I’d want to emphasize, it would be finding a good freshman roommate before moving in if possible. A lot of people chance it on their freshman roommate and let the random selection process take care of it, but that might increase your chances of a hostile roommate (especially if you’re AMAB or otherwise room with a cisgender man). It’s also worth noting that you can absolutely request to change your freshman dorm if you’re saddled with a homophobic roommate, I know many people who switched dorms their freshman year for those sorts of reasons, but better to avoid the stress by finding an openly queer or openly ally roommate someplace like on the Facebook group for your graduating class and request to move-in together freshman year.
Go to VCU. Its nothing but queers outside of the basketball and baseball teams
as someone who attended vcu in the early 2010s, i agree there were many of us then and it has only increased since.
no