The Quinnipiac Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) distributed ice cream to help spread awareness of National Coming Out Day on Monday, Oct. 12.
Although National Coming Out Day is Oct. 11, GSA chose Monday because more people would be around so they could talk to students about coming out themselves, or by being a good ally. Anyone who went got free ice cream, and students received sexuality and gender affirming pins, and also left out copies of a tip sheet.
Club members also took the day to reflect on progress made to advance LGBTQ rights on campus. Vice President Aden Mariyappa said that in his four years some progress has been made, but there is still a lot of work to do.
“The LGBTQ community isn’t always very visible on campus, which makes it really easy to not take us into account when it comes to policies and how people act,” Mariyappa said. “I’ve seen people that still use the F-word on campus, or call something they hate ‘gay’, which is not good.”
Mariyappa said that GSA sometimes is simply paid lip service by university leadership, and big change can take a while.
“(The LGBTQ community members) aren’t the majority,” Mariyappa said. “That’s why GSA holds events that are open to everyone, so they can get educated and be allies. We need allies for change.”
GSA Treasurer Jenna Saleh pointed out trans rights are lagging at Quinnipiac.
Transgender students at Quinnipiac can have their old name, referred to as a “deadname” within the community, used on transcripts and student IDs. Those deadnames can be hard to remove and transgender students have to go through a lot of complicated steps. Housing can also be a challenge, as a transgender student must get the signatures of every other person in the dorm in order to live with their gender of preference.
“It can be really hard,” Saleh said. “We do the best we can to point those students in the right direction and advocate for things like gender-neutral housing and more awareness but a lot of the resources just aren’t there.”
The ice cream is an old tradition at GSA. Saleh says that it’s friendly and makes the events approachable. No one has to learn about every issue, but if they come, they try and casually mention a few tips as the students pick out a flavor.
“Every person that learns a little more brings us closer to being normalized and recognized,” Mariyappa said.