By Chris Beswetherick
On October 28, the AS Queer Resource Center will host a costume party and dance at the Viking Union for the beginning of Halloween weekend. Everyone is encouraged to dress up, although the QRC stresses everyone who comes remains respectful of the community.
The organization asks all attendees to be mature for the sake of all identities and the comfort level of the dance. They ask all attendees to wear clothing that does not appropriate other cultures. They also define that “clothing does not mean consent,” therefore, do not break physical or emotional boundaries of anyone at the dance. The QRC expects their peers to assume an appropriate level of maturity.
The idea of a safe space has grown over time, and many campuses across the country are establishing these spaces. Western’s QRC is one of the best examples of the movement toward gender and sexual identity inclusivity. The center has previously held ice cream socials, and they continue to do so, but under new leadership they are growing.
Last year, the center hosted Queer Prom, a re-visit to typical proms. The center framed the dance around holding the prom many students wanted in high school. At Queer Prom, the environment was made to be inclusive, and the QRC plans to maintain that at their dance.
“It’s going to be a ball,” Kieran Flowers, QRC Assistant Coordinator for Educational Programming said.
Since this takes place during Halloween weekend, the theme will incorporate tokens from the holiday. There will be traditional Halloween candy, punch, music and a costume contest. The judges will be the people attending the dance, so it is truly a group event.
Interestingly, the whole office is not working together on this project. Instead, everyone in the center has their own responsibilities to complete. Flowers, who works with educational programming, schedules speakers and workshops for the campus. On the other side of the center, QRC Assistant Coordinator for Community Programming Katie Wallis plans events like the QDance.
This is Wallis’ event, therefore she decides upon all creative and business elements involved. While the other employees of the center are involved mostly in their work, they are all supporting the event as well. Inclusivity both within, and outside of The QRC epitomizes the work ethic of the group.
Not only will the QRC be present at the event, but they invited other clubs from campus to table. They will have games and activities at the dance, too – Wallis promoted a total collaboration of clubs to make the dance a memorable festival of campus culture.
The QRC forms a considerable amount of special events on campus, as having a primarily queer-inclusive space is difficult to establish. Here, everyone can just be who they are.
