Illinois college becomes first to ask undergrads if they're gay - CNN.com

Here's a first in the college community. Elmhurst College, a private liberal arts school in suburban Chicago affiliated with the United Church of Christ, has become the first college in the country to ask an optional question about a student's sexual orientation and gender identity on an undergraduate admission form, according to the school and a gay rights advocacy group.

This,  according to the  college is a good thing and helps them identify and create programs around those groups that face adversity, such as in the LGBTQ community. There is a new question on the admission form that asks,"Would you consider yourself a member of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community? Students can answer 'Yes,' 'No,' or 'Prefer not to say'." This can be taken two ways of course. The on-campus LGBT advocacy group supports this action, saying that they have been trying to get this question on the standardized application for some years now to be able to identify and provide better services, programs and scholarships to students who identify themselves as being in the LGBTQ category.

However, I can see the obvious downside of having this on a college application. Once it's one there and "normal", it might not take long for the "Prefer not to say" selection to be eliminated, and under the current Republican agenda of fostering anti-gay hate wherever they go (while espousing their high religious beliefs to which they themselves are not held to), for your positive answer to be tabulated somewhere in a database for future extermination. At the least, to be used to track "gay" people and suppress our rights as this country moves backward into its 3rd World status.