I am now officially gay-for-pay! (In a good way.)
Today marked my very first day as programming coordinator at the new Qmunity: Students’ Union Volunteer Services Sexual & Gender Diversity Centre. In other words, I am the only person at the University of Calgary (a notorious hotbed of conservatism) to hold a paid position to be the best gay person I can be. Go team!
It’s a brand new queer resource centre developed and sponsored by the SU (to whom I tip my hat graciously), and will encompass a rather large safe-space/office and numerous on-campus programmes.
It’s essentially my job to develop the centre, write procedure and policy, create the programmes, staff the centre, and manage volunteers. I’ll have a ton of support since it’s a brand new initiative and although I’m super enthusiastic, I am also terrified shitless of the idea of being given such a blank slate. Still, this will give me an opportunity to put into practice what I’ve spent so long in theory, and unlike my position as Co-Chair of Queers on Campus (which is still so important), it has the institutional backing a club lacks.
I’m hoping to develop a space where people can just go to hang out, receive peer support and mentoring, develop themselves, find outreach and informational programmes and just have everything they could possibly want queer-wise. It’s a big task, and I’m quivering in anticipatory excitement. So let’s see what I an make of it.
Any ideas for directions or possibilities?
So here we embark on a new journey in my queer little world, and as RuPaul helpfully suggests: “Don’t fuck it up”. Yeah.
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