Our elections have concluded, and listed below are all of our E-Board members for the next academic year (in reverse alphabetical order, no favorites–yet).

Ellie Vetack (she/her) - President and Publicity Chair
Leila Ramirez (they/them) - Social Chair
Nhuja Maharjan (he/they) - Business Manager
Katy Lambright (she/her) - Conference & Industry Coordinator
Kevin Contreras (they/them) - Secretary

    Congratulations to our new Board members, we look forward to working with you and making oSTEM a cornerstone of UR queer culture & professionalism. 

- Website: Link
    Browse through our CCC website to take advantage of our compiled Resources & Opportunities (scholarships, conferences, etc.), read more about our iconic E-Board members, and find other general oSTEM links. The website is regularly updated, if you spot any issues or know of an R&O we haven’t included, our Feedback Form is always open!

• Sasha Colby on the cover of Gay Times: Link 
    Former Miss Continental and Drag Race royalty, Sasha Colby graced the cover of Gay Times this past week. Sasha spoke about everything from the politicization of drag to how she may have been the inspiration behind Beyoncé's Sasha Fierce. Notably, she also touches on the overdue platforming of trans pioneers like her (voices of which are scarce as it is because of strategically governing necropolitics). Sasha commends the media for its inclusion of trans stories, but calls out its focus on an individual’s trans journey (with patterns of medicalization and uneducated generalizations matching those on the other side of the aisle), instead of “why we transition and the great outcomes of transitioning.” She summarizes by pointing out the recent breakout success of trans artists in mainstream culture, individuals who were met with support early in their transition are a threat to ignorance because they contradict every uneducated, hateful claim fabricated against them.
• Trans Day of Visibility 
    This Friday, March 31, is International Trans Day of Visibility. In observance of TDoF, we’d like to remind our members of both the wave of legislative policing of queer bodies and of the valid need for a space devoid of these grievances (especially by trans and GNC individuals). Ignorance is often best combatted through awareness, political literacy, and their application in direct action. The Trans Formations Project is an incredible grassroots nonprofit, their weekly newsletters update you on the status of specific state bills (healthcare, drag, schooling, etc.), compile a list of action items in response to these bills/hearings, highlight movement success news, and summarize other queer news across the nation. Queer Youth Assemble, another great queer resource, is hosting a National March for Queer and Trans Youth Authonomy on TDoF, you can look for a march near you (or your family/friends) through their State Marches Map. 

    This week’s Highlight is going to be a bit lighter than usual as I try to move to more contemporary movements and finally apply the catalog of works we’ve gone over (archived through our website for your convenience). Brace yourself for the Highlights of the coming weeks, including Berlant’s Sex In Public & Gayle Rubin’s Thinking Sex, as the policing of literature continues to be brought up by presumably illiterate politicians, and Jasbir Puar’s Terrorist Assemblages, as the lack of cross-movement solidarity weakens platforms.

    Cultural theorist and author, Raymond Williams developed affect studies through his book Structures of Feeling, focusing on the atmosphere of emotions and designated moods through history and media. Williams’ framing of affectivity as structures of feeling helps differentiate description & analysis from the lived present & the feelings enveloping it, pointing out lost value/reductive meaning in defined forms (experienced vs established affect). 
    Honestly, Williams lowkey goes into a whole meta realm of theory that I don’t entirely get (partly b/c affect studies are paradoxical and vague aka nerd-emoji-ology), but for today’s Highlight, we’ll only be using his framework questioning imposed affect. 
    For example, BDSM has a negative affect with most people picturing extremes and problematic tendencies. By analyzing its atmosphere with an affective focus, we see the shame & ‘icky’ emotions designated to it stem from sex’s layered negative affectivity. Then, questioning why sex and BDSM are affectively ostracized can lead to the adoption of its tendencies which pose a danger to the establishment. In collaboration with the Rochester Kink Society, the University’s BIC, UHS, and UCC are hosting a BDSM presentation and Q&A (more details here). Full disclosure, I don’t know the specifics of their event, but I trust the BIC to do the topic justice, see if you can spot affective ties in their presentation! 
    Expanding on our celebration of Sasha Colby’s mainstream takeover through her Gay Times interview, it is important to discuss the volatility of public perception, and its impact on movements, that she brings up. Sasha calls out the reinforcement of imposed affect surrounding performance drag as strategic and calls for an increase in trans visibility knowing her success threatens decades-long narratives. Because queer livelihood has been historically eradicated from public spaces, the community was forced into private spheres with matching affectivity as a space of refuge. Now that the community is seeing breakthrough successes, despite the taboo affect persisting and a shift to embracing the label of gender failures (Re: Halberstam’s Queer Art of Failure), the need for stricter biopolitics (Re: Foucault and Mbembe's Bio/Necropolitics) enforcing control is emphasized.