{"id":6352,"date":"2023-09-20T10:42:32","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T14:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hoodcomstudies.com\/theblueandgrey\/?p=6352"},"modified":"2023-09-20T10:42:36","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T14:42:36","slug":"qsu-off-to-strong-start-during-new-semester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/20\/qsu-off-to-strong-start-during-new-semester\/","title":{"rendered":"QSU off to strong start during new semester"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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QSU Logo <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

By Sofia Montoya-Deck
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hood College\u2019s Queer Student Union (QSU) is starting off the new semester with high attendance, a full executive board and big plans for outreach within the Hood community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

QSU is a student organization LGBTQIA+ students, their supporters and anyone who is interested in educating themselves about gender identity and sexual orientation. The organization\u2019s three main goals center on providing a safe space for students, creating community and advocating for institutional change. QSU president Anna LePlatt said the club is for everyone: \u201cIt\u2019s for allies; it\u2019s for people in the closet; it\u2019s for people out of the closet; and for people who just want to learn more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LePlatt first joined the executive board as secretary their junior year and is now beginning their second year as president. \u201cI love it. It\u2019s a wonderful organization and I\u2019m glad that I can have this sort of community,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LePlatt praises the QSU executive board and club members for helping provide a voice for the Hood LGBTQIA+ community. Every meeting begins by inviting members to bring up any concerns or issues they have experienced around campus; as a result, QSU can start working to resolve them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, QSU is advocating to increase pronoun selections in Self-Service. At present, students can select their pronoun preference but are limited to only one set from the options of she\/her, he\/him and they\/them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

QSU representatives are working with Hood administration to give students more opportunities to customize their pronouns. Increasing pronoun variety would give students access to options such as he\/they or she\/they. Students\u2019 selected pronouns are found on class rosters and allow professors to refer to students in their preferred manner.  QSU hopes that more pronoun options will be available within the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another recent undertaking of QSU is encouraging other clubs on campus to not purchase Chick-fil-A for events. Chick-fil-A and its chief executive officer have a history of donating to anti-LGBTQIA+ organizations and conversion therapy advocates. QSU hopes to educate other clubs on this issue so they can make informed decisions about their purchases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

QSU has also been working on its biggest event of the year, the annual Safe Sex Carnival that will be held on Oct. 21. The event will take place from 9 p.m. to midnight in Whitaker Campus Center and entails a series of sex-themed carnival games to educate the Hood community on safe sex practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students who attend the carnival are assigned a one-hour timeslot to play games led by different campus organizations. At the end of their timeslot, students have the chance to turn in their tickets to claim sex-themed prizes such as vibrators, phallic toys and little pillows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

QSU hosts weekly meetings on Thursdays at 7 p.m. in Whitaker Campus Room 220. LePlatt encourages students interested in joining QSU to come out. \u201cNot in a literal sense,\u201d they joked, \u201cbut in a way of coming to the meetings.\u201d QSU does not have a public roster and does not take photos or videos at their meetings to protect the privacy of their members. \u201cWe have their backs,\u201d LePlatt stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a period where it is becoming a lot more acceptable to be who you are in any sense,\u201d LePlatt said. \u201cI think, in a way, QSU has helped with that for a lot of people and I\u2019m really thankful to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sofia Montoya-Deck Hood College\u2019s Queer Student Union (QSU) is starting off the new semester with high attendance, a full executive board and big plans for outreach within the Hood community. QSU is a student […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":6353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,561,959],"class_list":["post-6352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-hood-college","tag-lifestyle","tag-qsu"],"aioseo_notices":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6354,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6352\/revisions\/6354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}