INTRODUCTION

Objectives of Queer Commission:

1) Be an advocacy group aimed at improving the status of queer students both on campus and in the community.

2) Be aware of and work to support the projects of other queer student’s organizations on campus and in the community.

3) Act as a referral source for students on any matter concerning LGBTQI issues.

4) Work to educate the campus on issues pertaining to the LGBTQI community.

5) Advise the Legislative Council on issues pertaining to LGBTQI students.

6) Provide student representation for A.S. on ad hoc Administrative committees concerning LGBTQI issues.

7) Work on advocating the rights of all LGBTQI students on campus.

8) Implement the Safe Zone Training Program and maintain a working relationship with the Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity staff.

QUEER PEOPLE OF COLOR CONFERENCE

Queer Comm. supported the Queer People of Color Conference at UCSB this year. The conference offered attendees from across the UC and State College systems a wide range of workshops and other activities to both educate and provide safe spaces to network and share resources. The program, which began with welcoming activities on Friday, May 1 and ended mid-day Sunday, May 3, can be found by clicking here.

Queer People of Color Conference Speakers

The opening keynote speaker was Julio Salgado a Mexican-born artist and activist who uses his art to empower undocumented and queer people and to advocate for the DREAM Act movement, which seeks to give children born in the United States to undocumented parents access to higher education and funding for that education. Other speakers and performers included, black/trans/queer poet J Mase III, who also blogs for the Huffington Post, writer Mia McKenzie, and Grace Chang, Associate Professor in the UCSB Feminist Studies Department.

Queer People of Color Conference Workshops

The conference offered a wide variety of workshops, including:

Imagining Otherwise: Queering Israel/Palestine; F*ck Your Misogyny; First, Do No Harm: Addressing Mental Health through Stories & Images; Am I Queer Enough? Navigating Polysexual Identities; Homonormative VS Heteronormative: Between Assimilation and Exclusivist Politics; Decolonizing Body Love: Finding Beauty Within Ourselves, For Ourselves; Let’s Talk About Asexuality; RANSForming Eating Disorder Recovery: Education, Empowerment, Advocacy; Even My Poems are Revolutionary; May I Kiss You?: Sexual Communication & Consent; Family An AAPI Perspective; Decolonizing Genderqueer; Fighting for Economic Justice: Trans Workers Unite!; Empowering Our Voices: Healing from Toxic Relationships; Deconstructing My Depression (Film); The Bible is the Queerest Book I’ve Ever Read;  Art and Your Story=Activism; Queer Hip Hop: Liberating the Mind and Soul Through Music,  Black Radical Tradition: A Conversation on Race, Policing, and Prisons; QPOCthecary-Herbal Medicine for QPOC Resilience, “ENOGH IS ENOUGH BECAUSE QUEER IS QUEER”, Parents of Vietnamese Rainbow Children: A Film Screening and Dialogue; “I Love You”: Conditional Love Disguised as Unconditional; Reading and Understanding Indian MTF Transgender Literature; F*ck the Polar Bears (And Other Thoughts on Queering the Climate); Coming Out: Words and Pictures; Performance and Discourse – Queering Theatre of the Oppressed; Femme and Stoner: Breaking Stereotypes Regarding Drug Usage and Being Queer; Fruta Prohibida: the politics of desire; Reclaiming Electronic Music; Social Media & QPOC Activism; Survivors of Violence; QTPOC Art Babies; QPOC Nerd Caucus; Fat, Plus Size, Chubby, Full Figure, QPOC Caucus; Get Down with Brown; Socially Awkward Queers, Poly + Poly-Possible POC Caucus.

QUEER PRIDE WEEK

Queer Commission and The Resource Center for Sexual & Gender Diversity (RCSGD) presented the annual UCSB Queer Pride Week. Activities included a lecture by Michael Sam, Out in the NFL: An Evening with Michael Sam in Corwin Pavilion, Prep & Queer Sexualities in the RCSGD Lounge, Pelo Malo (Bad Hair) movie screening in the MCC DarkMatter workshops and poetry performance, a Student Drag Show and a lecture by Dito Na Ako: An Evening with Geena Rocero in the MCC.  Rocero is a transgender model, TED speaker, advocate, and founder of Gender Proud an advocacy and aid organization that supports transgender people around the world. The title of her TED Talk is Why I Must Come Out.

QUEER COMM. PROTESTS LECTURE BY JENNIFER ROBACK MORSE

During winter quarter, Queer Comm. protested the inaugural lecture of the UCSB Anscombe Society. The group seeks to define marriage as an “exclusive monogamous union of a man and a woman” and further promotes  “its role as an institution which is necessary for the healthy family, and thus a healthy society. They invited former George Mason University economics professor and founder of the Ruth Institute Jennifer Roback Morse to speak against same-sex marriage in a talk entitled “Same Sex Marrians: Why Not? Queer Com members chanted inside the lecture hall but were escorted out of the hall by Community Services Officers (CSOs).

SENATE RESOLUTIONS TO BLOCK QUEER COMM. APPOINTMENTS

In spring quarter the Senate indefinitely tabled Queer Comm’s appointments for 2015/16 due to what Senators considered inappropriate questions regarding UC’s divestment from companies supporting Israel’s military actions against Palestinians. Queer Comm defended the questions saying that the two individuals’ views were publicly known and that the questions were meant to be lighthearted. In May, incoming AS President Jimmy Villareal ultimately vetoed related resolutions that would have taken away Queer Comm’s right to make their own appointments and given it to the Senate. Queer Comm. members had argued convincingly that Queer Comm. must retain the right to appoint its own members and officers.