Queer People of Color is aiming to make cultural spaces on campus more LGBT friendly for everyone.
QPOC, a student group for queer minorities is creating a task force of students who will work with three cultural centers on campus — Makuu, Pan-Asian American Community House and La Casa Latina — to address LGBTQ issues and provide support for people of color through the cultural centers.
The task force will comprise of about 30 students divided among the cultural centers. The task force will not create one overarching program; instead, each group of students will develop their own program to advocate for queer people of color depending on what cultural center they are working with.
“Each center may have their own story as to where they are today,” College senior and QPOC Co-chair Diana Estrada Alamo explained.
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The program could consist of things like weekly meetings, one major event at the end of the semester or a space that showcases relevant art. “It could be one thing or it could be all of those things,” Engineering junior and QPOC Co-Chair Stephen Masso said.
By leaving it up to each cultural center to “diagnose its problem,” Estrada Alamo said members of the task force would be able to learn how queer people of color can best be served and access these resources regardless of their sexuality.
The program was started because members of QPOC realized that there were difficulties for gay students who were also ethnic minorities. “It’s all of us sitting in dialogue and recognizing that there is a problem, that there is legitimately some students who will not set foot into these centers,” Estrada Alamo said.
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In addition to having unique programs for each center, the entire task force will convene with an LGBT center representative throughout next semester to address any issues they may encounter.
According to Masso, the inclusion of queer people of color in the cultural centers was first brought up as a topic of discussion in 2001. The LGBT community and the cultural centers were “seeking common ground” back then, but Estrada-Alamo explained that “nobody was taking it on head first.”
The idea of a task force was brought back now because the new ARCH building will soon house all three cultural centers in one place.
“We need to do this now because we don’t know what will happen in the future. We don’t know how staffing, resources and atmosphere will change moving into the ARCH building,” Estrada Alamo said. “This is something that needs to happen now.”
All three cultural centers are on board with the task force. “We’re excited to partner and contribute, as we’ve already forged strong links with several of the organizers,” Makuu Director Brian Peterson said. “This task force provides another building block.”
“We’re the vehicle that’s making the change happen, but we’re not necessarily the people,” Estrada Alamo said. “The only way that we can properly serve and address this problem is together.”
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