STATEMENT OF ALLYSHIP

In the past, TQSU (formerly known as QSU) was known to be a space that has fostered harm and pain towards people of color, womxn, and transgender folks. We created a space that pushed these people and their voices out, and at times even compromised their safety.

Due to this history, we acknowledge the harm that has been done in the past, and hope that we can work on ourselves and our organization to support and empower the communities we've harmed, and foster a space where we can heal our relationships. Much more, we acknowledge the privileges that TQSU has in being an organization that encompasses many identities within the LGBTQ+ community, due to our nature of being club that serves a broad community. In our spaces there will be white people, men, cisgender people, and others with privileged identities. We hope to utilize this privilege in a productive way to support the marginalized people within our own community, as well as uplifting and supporting other LGBTQ+ organizations. This is not to say that we, as TQSU, will be a club that is predominantly composed of white, cisgender men. We are a club that thrives in diversity and the existences of multiple identities, and we hope to welcome and include everyone into our space.

OUR COMMITMENT

In our efforts to better our allyship, we have made intentional commitments to ourselves and to others. This commitments include, but are not limited to:

Featuring continual education within our club through programming such as 5 Minutes of Education within our General Meetings.
Using our group discussions to highlight marginalized voices within our community.
In spaces where board members are representing the club to other people or organizations, refusing to give our voice without the presence of other clubs such as QTPOC Collective and Jews of Pride.
Creating programming to create a space where folks can feel included while also increasing the retention of club members.

We understand that in our statement of our commitment and efforts towards allyship, we cannot label ourselves as allies but only hope to do the work to support those within our community who are marginalized. This is our own form of accountability to ourselves, and an open invitation for others to call us out when we do make mistakes to uphold our commitment.