NEWS

Outspace+ Queer History Month

Jenna Mares, Ozone House’s Director of Education, Outreach, and Welcoming, advertises the shelter’s services. Photo courtesy Mia Lanier-Durkins
Outspace+ ends Queer History Month with final harrah

By Willow Symonds
Staff Writer

Outspace+, WCC’s LGBTQ+ club, originally intended to host a Beloved Community Gathering on Oct 27. This would’ve been their last celebration before the end of Queer History Month, which lasts all of October.

But when a sewage pipe burst, administrators closed the campus for the day, canceling all events.

With the help of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Outspace+’s club leaders rescheduled it for Wednesday, Nov 2. While the location also changed to Garrett’s Restaurant, they managed to keep much of their original plan, such as setting up a cart of LGBTQ+ books and hosting two speakers.

Access Service Technician Cate Karain displays LGBTQ+ books from the Bailey Library. Photo Courtesy Christina Do.

Standing before the tables, Ozone House’s Director of Education, Outreach, and Welcoming, Jenna Maries, advertised the shelter’s resources. Historically, LGBTQ+ teens face homelessness more than their straight and cisgender peers. Services like Ozone offer them (and any homeless young adult) a place to stay.

The shelter is down the road from WCC’s campus and hosts PrideZone, a club for queer youth. These are big reasons why Christina Do, Coordinator Equity & Inclusion, reached out to them for this event.

Both students and faculty could pick up flyers, pamphlets, and business cards detailing Ozone House and other LGBTQ+ services.

Attendees take free flyers, pamphlets, and pins, all of which offer LGBTQ+ resources or celebrate pride. Photo Willow Symonds | Washtenaw Voice

A PrideZone Facilitator, who’d previously been answering guests’ questions about each pride pin, presented a diagram called The Gender Unicorn. They explained the differences between gender identity, gender expression, and sex assigned at birth, and they elaborated on how these are seperate from physical and emotional attraction.

According to them, this diagram was recently updated from the Genderbread Man, which had less information and some outdated ideas.

Earlier that Wednesday, Outspace+ President Kenzy Couch posted the event’s information in the Discord server’s ‘announcements’ channel. She encouraged club members to stop by and get some food (supplied by Bobcat Bonnie’s), pamphlets, pride pins, and other gadgets (from Unicorn Feed & Supply).

Outspace+ President, Kenzy Couch, checks out one of the LGBTQ+ books. Bailey Library’s Access Service Technician, Cate Karain, records the information. Photo courtesy Mia Lanier-Durkins

Evie Brokaw, a Liberal Arts Transfer student and club member, read this announcement and attended, hoping to talk to people and learn about the community.

“My favorite aspect was the crafts on the table,” Brokaw told The Voice. “It gave people something to do while talking, eating, waiting, and listening. … I think [the event] was successful because I learned a lot about local LGBTQ organizations and chatted with some people.”

Due to the cancellation, Outspace+ celebrated its final event after Queer History Month’s end. Still, Kenzy Couch believed that the Beloved Community Gathering, “ran beautifully, especially with such a last minute change in plans.”