By AMY MAGARO RUBIN

As a college student in San Francisco, Charles de Berry was used to openly expressing his identity as a gay man. Then he spent a year studying in Spain.

In Madrid, he was repeatedly harassed. At times he felt compelled to hide his sexual identity. Mr. de Berry, now a senior at San Francisco State University, wishes that he had known about homophobic attitudes in Spain ahead of time. "I would have been better prepared," he says.

Had he chosen, he actually could have found out quite a bit from his university's study-abroad office, which offers special orientations and has resources for gay students. But many students don't have such an opportunity.

Only a handful of colleges have set up programs to help gay and lesbian students prepare for study abroad. Students in these programs learn that homophobia is common in some countries, particularly in Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, and that disclosing their sexual identity could be dangerous. They also learn that there are many other countries -- especially in Western Europe -- where they can express their identity.

"It's one more dimension in making sure all students are prepared for foreign study," says Kathleen Sideli, associate director of academic affairs at Indiana University's Office of Overseas Studies. "We're becoming attentive to the whole student."

Even so, sexuality is a topic that makes some advisers feel uncomfortable. "In a lot of offices, it's not a validated concern," says My Yarabinec, coordinator of study-abroad and international-exchange programs at San Francisco State. "They don't have any information for gay and lesbian students."

San Francisco State and Indiana, however, along with the University of Minnesota, are cited as models for their attempts to help gay students adjust to foreign study.

Indiana and Minnesota include information on gay issues during orientations held for all students going abroad; San Francisco offers separate sessions to cover the topic. All three universities have reference materials on the subject in their study-abroad offices, and San Francisco has compiled a guide to laws regarding homosexuality in various countries. Each of the institutions also maintains a file of personal experiences reported by gay students who have gone overseas.

The Vermont-based School for International Training, meanwhile, has established a semester-long program in the Netherlands that explores gay life in that country. Most of the students who participate in the program are gay or lesbian, and are from colleges and universities across the United States.

Preparing gay students for what to expect in a particular country can make the difference between a wonderful study-abroad experience and an unpleasant one.

Mr. de Berry, the senior at San Francisco State, wishes he had known what he was walking into when he went to Spain two years ago.

Shortly after he arrived in Madrid, he began dating a Spanish man. When they walked down the street, many people yelled "Maricon!" (derogatory slang for a gay man) at them. Once they sneaked a kiss in a park and were chased by two men who hurled threats at them.

"I felt a mixture of anger and fear," Mr. de Berry says. "I wished I had read up." Knowing about the attitudes wouldn't have changed his mind about going to Spain, he says, but he would have been better able to enjoy his time in the country. He says he would have known, for example, that he probably should not hold hands in public or kiss in the park.

Matthew Pitts, a senior at Indiana, says he felt "incredibly fortunate" that his institution advised him on what life would be like as an openly gay man in Germany.

Mr. Pitts, who majors in political science and German, says he was a little worried when he decided to spend last year at the University of Hamburg. "I wasn't sure what to expect. You hear rumors about skinheads."

He went to the overseas-studies office and pored over gay-travel guides and evaluations from gay men who had previously studied in Hamburg. "I was able to get a lot of good information," he says. "I learned that Germany was a lot more open and tolerant toward gays and lesbians, that it wasn't uncommon to see same-sex couples holding hands on the street or kissing in public."

Going overseas allows some gay students to come out of the closet.

"They're away from the restraints of their home culture," says Julie Trimpe, assistant director for international-exchange programs at Virginia Tech. "They're away from family and friends, and there is no stigma." She is at work on a project about how coming out overseas affects gay and lesbian people.

For gay students who live in conservative areas, or whose family members do not accept their sexuality, going overseas may be the first time they've felt comfortable expressing their homosexuality, says Frank Romanowicz, study-abroad adviser at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "Their sense of freedom is increased. Their comfortability quotient is higher."

That was the case for Mr. Pitts. He was openly gay before he went abroad, and his parents were supportive. But in Hamburg, he was able to experience being gay in a much more open way than at Indiana. He didn't think twice about holding hands in public with the man he dated, or sitting close together and kissing. He attended his first large "Gay Pride" event there, too.

"I could be who I was without thinking twice," he says. "Here in Bloomington, I'm always looking over my shoulder in some respect. It was a very affirming experience."

Then he had to return home. "All of a sudden I had to pull back and kind of go back into the closet. After a year of being used to a certain standard, it was tough. Once you get a taste of liberation, it's hard to shut that part off."

It is vital for gay students to understand how they may have changed by the time they come back to the United States, says Anthony C. Ogden, a graduate student at the School for International Training, who wrote a brochure called "Welcoming Gay Culture: Preparing International Educators for a New Clientele." Mr. Ogden writes that study-abroad offices should have a re-entry program that includes "a discussion prompting these students to think about these changes."

Study-abroad advisers can also help returning students adjust by providing information on gay-and-lesbian support groups on the campus, or just by taking the time to talk with the students, says Indiana's Ms. Sideli.

Some advisers either don't recognize the needs of gay students who study abroad, or don't know how to deal with such needs. This is particularly true at institutions located in more-conservative areas, says Mr. Romanowicz, of Alabama. "This state is very provincial about homosexuality," he says. "You have to be careful."

He doesn't cover gay-and-lesbian issues in orientations or have special travel guides on his shelves. If he did, he explains, other students "might be put off by it." He does try to advise gay students privately. He doesn't "post a sign saying, 'I do this advising,'" he says, but if a student comes to him, he will provide the appropriate information. In Mr. Romanowicz's four years at Birmingham, however, he has advised only two gay students. "I know there are more," he says.

He and several counterparts from other universities are trying to get more people talking about the issues involved. At professional conferences, they have held such panel discussions as "Taboo Topics: Sex and Sexual Orientation -- Incorporating Discussion into Student Orientation Programs." They have also started a newsletter and a World-Wide Web site on the subject (http://www.indiana.edu/~overseas/lesbigay/).

"We need to prepare students and give them as much information as possible," says Al Balkcum, director of the University of Minnesota's Global Campus, which runs study-abroad programs. "We need to provide students with the tools to get the most out of their study-abroad experience."