WELCOME BACK
From TQSU to you, we wanted to welcome you all back to Cal Poly. We hope that this summer was a wonderful one, and as we come back from the summer, we hope that you're starting this quarter strong!
This October is LGBTQ+ History Month, and we wanted to take this moment to acknowledge the past histories that have been present in the locally, nationally, and globally. The existence of LGBTQ+ people is not a recent phenomena, these identities and experiences have existed for centuries. We also want to acknowledge the identities that aren't inherently LGBTQ+ within their cultures and societies, but when put in contact with Western Civilization, become marginalized due to the systems of Heterosexism and Cisheterosexism** that bleed throughout society. In this month, we celebrate this history, and through this, we celebrate us. LGBTQ+ History is not necessarily a thing of the past-- we make LGBTQ+ History every day. Our lives are the legacies of the people before us, who made strides and change, and our lives will be the legacies of those who come after us. LGBTQ+ History is not a moment, but a movement. It, like us, is a force that cannot be stopped. We hope that in celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month, you celebrate yourselves and the small steps you make towards your own history. Together, we'll make the change in the world we want to see, and the histories we've made will expand into the future.
**See definitions of Heterosexism and Cisheterosexism below.
UPDATES AND EVENTS
With our new academic year we have a lot of new updates, one of the most important ones is our name change! Read out Instagram post on our name change here. It's a name change that we're proud to present to all of you all, and we hope that you're excited about the name change as we are!
With the name change means a lot new things-- new Instagram and Twitter handles (@calpolytqsu), new Facebook page name, but most importantly, a new website! Our board has been hard at work doing our best to update the website, and we'll be sending that out to you all soon.
Lastly on updates, we've moved main methods of communication! We're leaving GroupMe for Discord-- a space that allows for more ways to socialize and connect with people. It's definitely a bit of an unexpected change, but there's a lot of cool ways that we can utilize and expand our club in manners that GroupMe can't. If you want to be part of the Discord but still aren't, click here to join!
We've started our General Meetings! For fall quarter, we're meeting on Mondays from 6-7 PM. We're still finding a good location to meet, so keep track on our social media to be able to know where we're meeting!
Next up, this Friday (10/11) we're having our first social event: Board Games with Executive Board. We'll be meeting in the Pride Center, and if we have a lot of people and need more space, we'll more to another location! It'll be from 12 PM to 1:30 PM, hope to see you there!
Next week, we'll be having our first workshop event: Queer & Trans* at Cal Poly Panel. It'll be a panel of various Cal Poly students talking about their experiences at Cal Poly. For first-year and transfer students, this is a great time to get to know continuing students and have conversations about what it's like to be at Cal Poly. It'll be on Friday, October 16 from 5 PM to 6:30 PM. We're still deciding on a location, so stay updated on social media to know where we'll be!
Lastly, we have our first collaborative event of this quarter! In collaboration with Drag Club, Jews of Pride, and QTPOC Collective, we're having our spooky Homoween Dance on Friday, October 25th from 8 PM to 12 AM. We've got a location scoped out, but have not reserved it yet, so much like the last event, stay updated on our social media!
Hope to see you at our events!
IN SOLIDARY,
TQSU
Heterosexism: The system of oppression of which those who are heterosexual/straight are privileged, while those who identify otherwise (lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, queer, etc.) are marginalized. Cisheterosexism: The system of oppression of which those who are cisgender are privileged, while those who identify otherwise (transgender, non-binary, genderqueer, etc.) are marginalized.
Why use these terms instead of homophobia/lesbophobia/queerphobia and transphobia? These terms (heterosexism, cisheterosexism) understand that the experiences of marginalization, violence, and discrimination of the LGBTQ+ is not on the individual level, but a manifestation of a greater system of power. Meanwhile, homophobia, lesbophobia, queerphobia, and transphobia only imply that it is a problem experienced because of individual people, when these problems have a larger place in society.