Ahoy Leed folks... I'm a Sophomore at UC Santa Cruz... born and raised in the Bay Area (ie 30 minutes outside of San Francisco). I'm trying to figure out where I want to go for a semester (at least?) abroad, and Leeds is looking pretty good - and my, my, you kids sure do have an active online presence, more than I can say for any of the other places I've looked into (Paris and Rome are a couple possibilities).
Leeds also appears to have a better art program than the places in Paris/Rome I can go to.. I'm an Art and Classical Studies double major, so if any of you guys have input about either of those programs at Leeds, that would be great...
But yeah! I'm used to the Bay Area/Santa Cruz, where I'm ridiculously accepted and don't really spend much time worrying about anybody knowing I'm gay... I'm curious about the climate over there as far as the gay scene goes (well um, lesbian in particular, too...). Also, should I come to Leeds? Is it awesome??? Is it fun? How's the art scene? The gay scene looks pretty active. :) Tell me what's UP! (please).
I do Classical Civilisations and so can tell you that the Classics department at Leeds is so ace. I don't know about the actual program of study that you'd be doing, but all of the staff are amazing. They are all slightly eccentric and lovely.
The gay scene in Leeds is pretty good, but it depends what you are after. Mission, the main gay club is having a refurb at the moment. When it reopens the best nights will be Homo (cheesy pop and house) and Poptastic (indie and pop). Also! Once a month there is a night called Suck My Left One, which is pretty popular with the gay ladies. Plus, clubs like HiFi are just relaxed and groovy, and not "officially gay", but there are always a few gayers there. The best night is called 'Move On Up' which is mostly motown and soul.
Oh, and of course for a quiet drink there is Blayds bar, a cute little pub that attracts older lesbananas and sweet little old men. Hehe.
You should come to Leeds, everyone that comes here loves it.
Wendy wrote: You should come to Leeds, everyone that comes here loves it.
I'll disagree with u there, I made the mistake of endin up in the law department & I still hate them with a passion.
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Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
Unfortunately I don't have any input about the course u wanna do. The gay scene stuff, its pretty thin on the ground for lesbian things, cos the main club n half the gay bars are owned by a complete tosser who focuses mainly on running nights for the typical drug fuelled gay men that dominate the leeds gay scene... he even called the Leeds "gay Pride' after party "meat in the street". Don't be taken in by any bollocks you read about the 'Leeds Gay Quarter' its just a pretentious view held by sum very disillusioned people who happen to write in tourism things... its a crappy street with small crappy bars on really, butu make the best of wot u;ve got i guess.
Manchesters got a brilliant gay scene.
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Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
i think Nic's being rather harsh about the scene. It does have alot of male based nights. But it's quite cool. You make of it what you want. I've not been to the Paris or rome scene, all i can say is don't look at spain lebsos are thin on the ground from what i found.
As for being accepted it depends what you count as being accepted. I've found you make it what you wana be. Walking down the street hand in hand with a girl you will prob get the odd look maybes even the odd whisper are they lesbians? we even got called gay boys once by a really drunk old man! which was realli funi.
As for the uni its quite gay friendly and theres always lgbt stuff going on if you wana get involved.
Unfortunatley i have no idea what them courses are like.
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Hello! could put something witty but i can't think of one!
What is problematic about going to Rome or Paris is that the schools I can exchange have rather poor or small art departments. Rome has none and AUP (American University Paris) has a very small program. The Classics dept at Leeds sounds good too, apparently! I'm thinking strongly about Paris... who knows!
Wendy wrote: the law department is not all that bad. stu posing as jeni
It's only cos there was a massive level of complaints raised by ppl off my year who they completely shafted. Seems that they refused to give us any help or guidance for anything, their answer for everything was well go n read books & they were sods for witholding information about student support services. I still want to burn it down, nowts gonna change that.
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Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
I don't think we should be deluded here; Leeds will never be anything as open and accepting as a place like SC or SF currently is. In Leeds you may not come into clashes with anyone as a result of your sexuality, there's little chance of being 'ridiculously accepted' as in somewhere like the Bay Area. When you think of Leeds, think of somewhere like Spokane WA or Portland without the arts scene. If it were me, I'd head to Paris where they have a pretty passable and active LGBT scene, though not nearly as defined as somwhere like the Castro, still fun and with a profile. The art and music scenes there are amazing (as one would expect) even if the school itself is small. Leeds has very little in the way of public art scene, sadly. It's present if you look for it, but it won't shout about its virtues. And of course Paris, being huge, has a much larger pool of people in it which makes it odd for any one minority to be seriously maligned. Leeds is an amazing place to live, but if you're looking for a REAL big city European experience, I'd consider your other options...
Plus the weather in good old Yorkshire is unpredictable but usually bad
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Nic // LGBT Society Events Officer 05/06 // LGBT Assembly Chair 05/06 - NUS LGBT Society of the year 2006(winners) //
LUU honarary life member - Awarded 2006 // LGBT Assembly Mentor 2006 -Onwards.
Contact me at nicturner_85@hotmail.com
Leeds is lovely but I'd say go where you think you will have the best opportunities, and i think you might impress people more with i studied in paris than leeds. RIdiculous i know but snobbery exists even in the best of places. But wherever you decide to go if you fancy pooping to leeds for a weekend and meeting all the lovely folk there sure people would be glad to meet.
overall i love leeds and find it fairly tolerant...but maybe thats cos im from bromley, homophobic capital of england. the lesbian scene is a little "underdeveloped", since the only truly lesbian place is blayds and as excellent as it is, its often full of menfolk.
blayds is a tiny, odd place with ace bar staff, cheapish drinks and free mags. its a place for milling around in rather than partying.
Some people will have strong views of leeds, for various reasons. And I can't comment on the course or Department as don't know it, but Leeds isn't too bad.
Everyone will have an opinion on Leeds. Me included, I've bitched about it often enough, but there's something about it - it made me stay here and continue to do so for my Msc. It is very much a male dominated Scene......... But I feel that most places are. You have to look for what you realy want. As for Leeds Uni, each Department has good and bad points, but you make the most out of it. Some posts are true though - don't believe all you read in the press about Leeds Scene... some of it is Bars are overhyped or just plain crap.
But what you can be guranteed is that you'll meet great people, even friends for life, and will enjoy the experience (as long as there no preconceptions).
One last comment "Paris Paris Paris"! Yeah I like Leeds, but been to Paris many times, and if that's a fesible option for your course/placement abroad, i'd be choosing there over anywhere really. But everyone is different.
PatrickT wrote: I don't think we should be deluded here; Leeds will never be anything as open and accepting as a place like SC or SF currently is. In Leeds you may not come into clashes with anyone as a result of your sexuality, there's little chance of being 'ridiculously accepted' as in somewhere like the Bay Area. When you think of Leeds, think of somewhere like Spokane WA or Portland without the arts scene. If it were me, I'd head to Paris where they have a pretty passable and active LGBT scene, though not nearly as defined as somwhere like the Castro, still fun and with a profile. The art and music scenes there are amazing (as one would expect) even if the school itself is small. Leeds has very little in the way of public art scene, sadly. It's present if you look for it, but it won't shout about its virtues. And of course Paris, being huge, has a much larger pool of people in it which makes it odd for any one minority to be seriously maligned. Leeds is an amazing place to live, but if you're looking for a REAL big city European experience, I'd consider your other options...
best of luck!
Patrick said it so well, and I definitely concur. Having lived in San Francisco for a couple of months, the atmosphere in Leeds just doesn't compare. I found I enjoyed the nightlife and atmosphere a lot more when I took a step back from the gay scene, as the gay scene is fun to begin with but gets amazingly insular after a while. Away from the scene, there are a lot of good, small, independent club nights and the local music scene is rather good. We've got an independent cinema (the Hyde Park Picture House) which is pretty good but does have the tendency to show the same films for weeks on end. As for art, you've got to dig really deep to find it; the city is far more concerned with shopping and nightlife than culture, although if plays are your thing then you're more in luck. Having said that, it's pretty cheap to live here compared to many cities in the UK. London is amazing, but will tear a hole in your pocket incredibly quickly.
Have you looked at Amsterdam at all? It's not a huge city, so you'll get to know it really well, and I've never been anywhere else that's so open and tolerant. Also, nearly everyone speaks English (especially university students) so the language need not be a barrier.
