Queers Read This!

xxxxHey Queers! Fall is here, and that means midterm season is upon us! Best of luck to all, I know y’all will be slaying!! While we don’t have a GMM this week, we will have one next week featuring the Greene Center, so please read on to learn more!

Last Week and Next Week

Coming Up

- Slack Group: Join

xxxxDon’t forget to join the oSTEM Slack group (if it works)!! 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 Conference

xxxxThis weekend, your lovely secretary and a few oSTEM icons will be attending O4U’s Engineering + Life Sciences Conference this weekend in St. Paul, Minnesota. O4U (Out for Undergrad) has been mentioned a few times in this newsletter (hint hint: read the rest of the newsletter, apps for their business conference are open!!) and you probably don’t know what it is, but it's basically a life-changing career & networking conference (and all expenses paid!!) for LGBTQ2+ students. Personally I can’t wait to attend and hopefully share about the conference in a future GMM, so stay tuned.

- Biweekly Study Hours Sundays 6-8pm in Douglass 403

xxxxThank you to everyone who showed up to our first study hour on Sunday. This will be recurring, with our next one on Sunday, October 6th from 6-8pm in Douglass 403. Please come and stop by, whether you want some extra tutoring or assistance with classes like physics or calculus, or just want to pop by and see what’s up.

- Website

- IEEE WIE ROCHESTER Presents: Industry Academia Engagement: A Next Gen View: Registration

xxxxThis event series initiated by IEEE Women in Engineering Rochester focuses on working with local partners towards the common goal of creating awareness, addressing challenges, and promoting retention of talent within the local tech ecosystem, with a key focus on diversity & inclusion. The seminar will be hosted on October 8th, 2024 in Feldman Ballroom from 11am-12pm. There will be many panel discussions and technical presentations from industry professionals in many top companies, so sign up if you are interested!

- LGBTQ+ Leadership Lecture & Dinner: Register by October 7, 2024

- O4U Business Conference: Round 1 Applications due by October 4, 2024

xxxxOut 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 for March 2025 in NYC, read more here.

- Transgender First Scholarship: Applications due by December 31, 2024

xxxxTFS’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

• Biden makes history with 12th Senate-confirmed LGBTQ judge: Link

President Joe Biden recently set the record for the highest number of openly LGBTQ+ supreme court justices with the confirmation of Mary Kay Costello as a district court judge in Philadelphia, making her the 12th openly LGBTQ judge appointed under Biden. President Barack Obama had previously held the record with 11 justices. Costello previously served in the air force from 1986 to 1994, and holds a law degree from Temple University as well as experience in private practice as a lawyer at the law firms Saul Ewing and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

• Hong Kong’s first transgender singer-songwriter shares journey at Pink Dot Festival: Link

Xavian Wu, Hong Kong’s first high-profile transgender singer-songwriter who also goes by the stage name Sy, shared his journey of self-discovery through music at the city’s LGBTQ Pink Dot HK festival this weekend. Wu, who debuted in February and has released three songs about his journey of self-discovery, recounted his challenges over the past decade, from not understanding himself to embracing his transgender identity. Although Hong Kong allows transgender people who have not completed full sex-reassignment surgery to change gender on their ID cards, they usually have strict surgical and hormonal requirements, and Wu has not received approval for his change. Wu sees music as a form of self-expression and hopes to use it to encourage and lift up the LGBTQ+ community.

See you at our next GMM! Have an amazing Mel Weekend <3