The Queer Student Cultural Center is the current incarnation of the

coming out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

genderqueer Non-binary or genderqueer gender identities are those that are outside the male/female gender binary. Non-binary identities often fall under the transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gender that is differ ...

intersex Intersex people are those born with any of several sex characteristics, including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binar ...

, and allied communities organization of the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

campuses that has been active since May 1969 (under various names).

History

Upon its creation, QSCC was named "The Association of GLBT Student Organizations and Their Friends" upon its inception in 1994 at the University of Minnesota. The group was created by Dave McPartlin and founded by the President of the University Gay Community (Dave McPartlin), the co-presidents of the University Bisexual Community (Jage Miller and Jonas Duca) and a co-facilitator of the University Lesbians (Susanna de Campos Salles) overseen by adviser Doug Halverson. The group was later renamed The

Queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

Student Cultural Center in 1998. Approved by the Minnesota Student Association and then University President, Nils Hasselmo, and Vice-President of Student Affairs, Marvalene Hughes, the Association was one of the earlier student groups to get University funding to combat

homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...

and tackle issues specific to

LGBTQ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...

students. The University Bi Community formed as an offshoot of the University Gay Community by Dave McPartlin in 1991, along with the University People of Color and University International Students as a way to reach the growing needs of the student population. Co-chaired leadership of the University Bi Community was taken on by Jage Miller and Jonas Ducat immediately after its inception. In 1982, the University Gay Community and University Lesbians were formed as two separate groups from their predecessor group entitled "Fight Repression of Erotic Expression (FREE), founded by Koreen Phelps and Stephen Ihrig on May 18, 1969. This group began after the duo started teaching a free University course on the West Bank on The Homosexual Revolution, causing it to become the first queer student group in America. In 1971, an original officer of FREE, Jack Baker, was the first openly gay man elected student body president at a major university. By winning this election he became the first openly gay man to win any public office in the U.S. In 1970, Jack Baker and Mike McConnell also became the first gay couple to seek legal marriage and were featured in

Life magazine ''Life'' (stylized as ''LIFE'') is an American magazine launched in 1883 as a weekly publication. In 1972, it transitioned to publishing "special" issues before running as a monthly from 1978 to 2000. Since then, ''Life'' has irregularly publi ...

. Jack was also re-elected in 1972.

Important Influences

QSCC/ULGC/FREE has helped accomplish many historically important things for the LGBT community including: * Electing the first openly gay student body president, Jack Baker in 1970 * Challenging the homophobia of the student body president in 1989 and requesting his removal. * Spearheading the removal of

ROTC The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC; or ) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. While ROTC graduate officers serve in all branches o ...

on campus in 1989 * First

student body president, Suzanne Denevan, elected in 1990 * National recognition by sports department of 'Gay Day' in 1990 * University recognition of LGBT needs by granting office space and funding in 1990

Names over the years

* 1969: Fight Repression of Erotic Expression (FREE). * 1972: Minnesota Gay Activists. * 1973: University Community Gay Association. * 1977: Minnesota Lesbian Gay Community. * 1982: separated into University Lesbians and University Gay Community. * 1991: Association of Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual Student Organizations and Their Friends (AGLBSOTF) formed from the groups: ** University Gay Community. ** University Lesbians. ** University

Bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

Community. ** Delta Lambda Phi Fraternity. ** GLBT International Students. ** GLB Medical Students. ** GLBT Students of Color. ** Heterosexuals Unafraid of Gays (HUGS). *1998: Queer Student Cultural Center (QSCC).

References

* Swan, Wallace. (2004). ''Handbook of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Administration and Policy''. CRC Press. p. 261.

External links

Queer Student Cultural Center

University of Minnesota GLBTA Programs Office
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070703122213/http://glbta.umn.edu/ , date=2007-07-03
Minnesota Daily story on funding cut in 2004

"Hillel Homepage" Who is he? He is she. Me is who: Lessons from Transgender Jews
Program presented by Hillel in cooperation with QSCC LGBTQ youth organizations based in the United States University of Minnesota LGBTQ in Minnesota

History

Important Influences

Names over the years

See also

References

Further reading

External links