Another syllabus day, another class slay. We hope your first semi-full week of classes is going well! Thank you all so much for stopping by during the Activities Fair last week, it was refreshing to see so many new and old (non-derogatory) faces.
Rocky, campus mascot and prolific ally, stopped by our table and served Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve, and Talent. Ellie, our president, was also there.
This Week
Join us this Friday (September 8) for our first meeting of the semester, our General Interest Meeting, from 5-6 pm at Douglass 407! We will be discussing the various events we have planned for the semester, go over upcoming conference plans, and celebrating Ellie’s birthday (ft. cake)!!!
Coming Up
Updates
- Slack Group: Join
Don’t forget to join the oSTEM Slack group!! Beyond networking with other members and getting behind-the-scenes gossip, you’ll also receive updates on our Resources & Opportunities and helpful adjacent material (ie. O4U’s LGBTQ+ Resume slides and National oSTEM Scholarships tips).
O4U Digital and Engineering Conference attendees, we are already coordinating travel and group logistics, contact us ASAP!! Nhuja, our business manager, will be attending the Digital Conference this weekend and is already coordinating with other attendees through Slack!! - Addressing Pronouns in Queer Spaces
One of the ‘privileges’ of predominantly queer spaces is the unique (and unfortunately rare) feeling of belonging. To further establish oSTEM spaces as one, we ask everyone to default to they/them pronouns when referring to someone whose pronouns you don’t know at our meetings/events. This practice is commonplace in spaces like O4U’s conferences because it simultaneously avoids misgendering someone (which if you do, apologize and move on, don’t prolong the moment!) and helps deconstruct our rigid understanding of gender through everyday communication.
Gender is a very fluid thing (for some it’s a trial journey), feel free to explore different pronouns in our spaces if you’d like (re: pocket gender) and/or update them anytime. Some people might be in a tricky place with their identity so, instead of *asking* them for their pronouns, share your pronouns as a soft prompting for theirs (if you’d like), and if they don’t specify theirs, keep to they/them!
oSTEM
- Website
Browse through our CCC website to take advantage of our compiled Resources & Opportunities (scholarships, conferences, etc.), read more about our iconic E-Board, 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!
Outside
- O4U Business Conference: Round 1 Applications due October 1, 2023 @ 11:59 pm EST
Out for Undergrad’s (O4U) conferences are life-changing experiences for LGBTQ2+ undergrads (whether you are out, selectively out, or it’s complicated). Their all-expenses-paid conferences feature prominent queer speakers, mentorship discussions, legendary career fairs, and more! Their Business Conference is tentatively scheduled on March 8-10, 2024 in NYC, read more here. - Transgender First Scholarship: Applications due by December 31, 2023
TFS’s annual $2.5k scholarship is open to trans/non-binary+ college students of all majors. The application is relatively short, but it does ask for a blog/social media post (300-1000 words) on your experiences. Feel free to contact us for blog post guidance if you’d like to go that route.
In The News
• Submit Queer News
Every week in our Queers Read This oSTEM newsletter, we feature important queer news that is happening locally, and around the world. If you see an article you believe oSTEM should cover & share, submit it to our Google Form!
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“Well, yes, "gay " is great. It has its place. But when a lot of lesbians and gay men wake up in the morning we feel angry and disgusted, not gay. So we've chosen to call ourselves queer. Using "queer" is a way of reminding us how we are perceived by the rest of the world. It's a way of telling ourselves we don't have to be witty and charming people who keep our lives discreet and marginalized in the straight world. We use queer as gay men loving lesbians and lesbians loving being queer. Queer, unlike GAY, doesn't mean MALE. And when spoken to other gays and lesbians it's a way of suggesting we close ranks, and forget (temporarily) our individual differences because we face a more insidious common enemy. Yeah, QUEER can be a rough word but it is also a sly and ironic weapon we can steal from the homophobe's hands and use against him.”
The excerpt above is from Queers Read This, a political zine anonymously written and distributed in NYC’s 1990 pride parade, at a time that the AIDS/HIV epidemic was ravaging queer populations (especially people of color) and violence against LGBTQ+ spiked. Queers Read This does use some outdated terms and strong language. Still, it also perfectly encapsulates the emotions felt and the calls to action these pioneers pushed for, and the civil disobedience strategies they developed. It is widely believed that the writers behind the zine were leaders of Queer Nation, a queer activist group that splintered from ACT UP to expand advocacy efforts and include trans people and POC.
Recognizing that the invocation of the zine can fall under the umbrella of appropriation, it’s important to actively avoid hijacking their message(s) as a martyr for ours. Although the zine uses outdated terms, we can still draw lessons from it and relate to its powerful language. Exemplified by queer bashings they’ve lived through, they point out how queer complacency and the capitulation (surrendering) of social agitation only corrode effective change. Word of caution for straight people who read it, don’t be surprised by their rules of conduct for y’all at the end. <3
The contributions of LGBTQ+ individuals have historically been erased and underplayed through either the policing of literature, sanitization of movements, or revisionist history. Feel free to look at previous highlights, summarized in our CCC website, for specific examples of these contributions. Sorry this week’s highlight was short, senior year is not being slay right now, but next week I hope to go over Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) in observance of Sex Worker Pride.
