3 Syracuse organizations that are fostering safe spaces for LGBTQ community
Courtesy of the Q Center
The Q Center is located on Hiawatha Boulevard and offers free services such as HIV and STD testing, as well as support groups.
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Although Pride Month is over, LGBTQ support and advocacy organizations in Syracuse offer community activities and resources year-round. The Daily Orange compiled a list of resources, most offering in-person events and counseling, that Syracuse University students in the LGBTQ community can use while on campus in the fall.
The Q Center
The Syracuse Q Center, located at 835 Hiawatha Blvd and operated by ACR Health, is one of three Q Centers in New York. The center provides safe spaces for LGBTQ youth and offers a variety of free services to teens and young adults, such as free testing for HIVs and sexually transmitted diseases. The Q Center also offers cultural competency workshops for police and fire departments and support groups for LGBTQ youth and families.
The Q Center adapted its core programs at the beginning of the pandemic to ensure online accessibility by offering virtual support groups and hang-out spaces, said Stephen Simone, the youth, family services and education manager at the Q Center. The virtual meetings were created to help attendees cope with feelings of isolation, said Simone.
Now, sixteen months after the pandemic began, the center is returning in-person events, beginning with a few in-person activities per week.
“We’re going to continue kind of slowly,” Simone said. “We’re not just going to open the floodgates, (and) roll out in-person to make sure that we’re being safe, and our youth and our young adults that come to the Q are also safe. We’re hoping to get back to a better sense of normalcy.”
More information on the Q Center and its resources can be found on its website.
Syracuse University’s Pride Union
Syracuse University’s Pride Union is a student-run organization that fosters a community for LGBTQ students on campus. The organization hosts biweekly meetings as well as several events throughout the academic year including an annual drag show and Chalk the Quad, where members decorate the quad and the promenade with chalk art and positive messages.
When the pandemic began, the union shifted most of its events to a virtual format. By the time it hosted its annual Pride Union Drag Show this past spring, the event was in person with a hybrid of in-person and Zoom audiences.
Diego Luna, vice president of Pride Union, said the organization hosted other hybrid events toward the end of the semester and students who felt comfortable attending in-person could come to. Pride Union is working to return to fully in-person meetings this semester, Luna said.
“We weren’t able to do a lot of the previous things that we were able to do,” Luna said. “The actual SU drag and pride bingo, those had to be done online, and of course it was still fun, but it was just a little bit different.”
SU Pride Union president Leilah Miller (left) and vice president Diego Luna host events and meetings for Syracuse’s LGBTQ community year-round.
Courtesy of SU Pride Union
More information on Pride Union can be found on its Instagram page.
BlackCuse Pride
Founded by Rahzie Seals in the early 2010s, BlackCuse Pride is a local organization that works to create a safe and supportive community for people of color in the LGBTQ community.
“We really want queer folks of color to have a voice in this town, and that includes the students who may not really reside in this town full time, but they’re here, and they need to be safe,” Seals told the DO in 2018. “Safe doesn’t necessarily mean safe from physical harm. They need to have someplace to be that they feel comfortable.”
In partnership with CNY Pride, BlackCuse Pride established a new LGBTQ resource center in the Syracuse area in 2020. In addition to its community advocacy efforts, BlackCuse Pride hosts a variety of events during the year, such as open mic poetry nights and “The Soul of Pride Cookout,” which the organization hosted this past Pride Month so that people could spend time together while eating in a local park.
More information on BlackCuse Pride can be found on its Instagram and Facebook pages.
Published on July 18, 2021 at 8:48 pm
Contact Abby: [email protected] | @abbyvp08
