Even on this exceptionally diverse, urban campus of 20,000 graduate and undergraduate students where the College’s diversity shines like a beacon, the Queer Student Union is a oasis for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students in search of a welcoming environment. Located in Room 309 of Thomas Hunter Hall, the QSU is made up of two groups, the Gay Men’s Alliance and Lesbians Rising, which joined in the 1960s to create a united front against intolerance and bigotry.
Sabrina Crimmins, the Vice President of Lesbians Rising, also said LGBT students “can be comfortable being who you are without any side glances; meet people, find amazing friends, and become a part of a larger community.” However, she also said that the club can be perceived sometime as “hard and intimidating to [get] into because of the many varying degrees of out-ness and confidentiality.”
Carly Steif, 21, Secretary of the Gay Men’s Alliance, said that the QSU holds discussions that are invaluable in helping LGBT students. Some topics brought up in the discussions include coming out, safe sex practices, AIDS and transgender, the music major said. Laughter accompanied by sounds from a familiar Nintendo game lured this reporter one Tuesday afternoon into the QSU’s clubroom where she encountered Steif and Gay Men’s Alliance member Phil Pacchiano sitting on one of the club’s four couches
Crimmins, 20, said that the QSU receives extra funding as if it were two separate clubs. Like all student organizations at Hunter, it gets its funding because of the technology fee that Hunter students are required to pay each semester.
The QSU holds regular meetings once a month, usually on the first Wednesday, when members hold discussions as well as plan events the QSU holds annually. Steif, a Bronx resident, who wore a knitted pink ski cap with a matching sweater, said the club also addresses several phobias that plague the LGBT community. “Some of these phobias include homophobia and transphobia,” she said. “LGBT is a term that encompasses all lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual people.” Not only are the club’s doors open to LGBT students but to their heterosexual friends and allies as well.
This club hosts a number of events throughout the school year, such as a Valentine’s Day party and a Drag Spring Fling where participants are encouraged to come dressed in drag. Members and their friends are asked to join in on the fun until the wee hours of the night in Room 309. Food and drinks are served at most of QSU’s events and music and dancing also take place.
Pacchiano, 23, a member of the Gay Men’s Alliance, said, “At the monthly meetings, the club officers come up with discussions that go along with the party they had planned for that month.” For example, in February the QSU held its annual Valentine’s Day Party and, prior to the party, held a discussion on healthy and responsible dating habits, said Pacchiano of Brooklyn, who wore a blue T-shirt and jeans.
Pacchiano also said that the club members attend many events outside of Hunter. The QSU was involved in the Gay Pride Parade in New York City last June as well as the Equality Ride, a springtime bus ride across the country for civil rights that acts as a forum for LGBT youth to work towards a common goal of equality for all sexualities and identities. Some members attended the Proposition 8 protest in Washington, D.C. this past November.
Crimmins, of Brooklyn, said, “We also sponsor events such as Queer CUNY, [a conference to discuss the joys and troubles of being out or no on campus] get speakers to come in and have sex toy workshops.” Crimmins is a student and intern at the Hunter School of Social Work and was interviewed by phone.
For more information about the QSU or to find out how you can become a member, check out it’s Myspace page at www.myspace.com/hunterrainbows or it’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2210206853 or, of course, by visiting Room 309 Thomas Hunter Hall.