SUNY Brockport had the grand opening of the Center for Gender and Sexual Diversity on October 24, 2022, and it has already made a big impact on the students.
The center puts on different events aimed toward awareness of the LGBTQIA+ population on Brockport’s campus, as well as programs to help those feel more included.
“The goal had always been to ensure the center was open to all, accessible to all, we wanted to make sure that we we’re truly making it intersectional in nature and supporting the needs and experiences of our LGBT students as well,” associate director of health promotion and prevention education and the center for gender and sexual diversity Mathew Hall said.
The goal of this center is to support the students of Brockport. But the name of the center has gone through some changes over the years.
“It had gone from Women’s Center to The Center for Woman and Gender and is now The Center for Gender and Sexual Diversity. Recognizing that gender exists outside of the binary and so does sexuality,” Hall said.
Throughout this year and a half, Hall and his team have been working to revitalize the space in B129 of the Seymour Union to make it more welcoming to students and to provide more resources.
“It features a couple of different things. So, there are some computers for students to use, there are some couches and comfy chairs, there are some bookcases with our growing college of queer and feminist literature, a television… One of the most used features of the lounge is our Queer Closet,” Hall said.
The closet originally started as a project from an intern in Women and Gender Studies who wanted to do a one-time gender affirming clothing swap. But the center has an extreme amount of success that the Queer Closet was born.
This closet had one mission- to help students.
“With the idea that any student, but particularly students who are exploring gender identity or gender expression, can come grab clothing. Clothing has no gender, but people use it as a performance of their gender,” Hall said.
But clothing isn’t the only thing you can get from the Queer Closet.
“We’ve partnered with places like Trillium Health, so we have breast forms and we’ve gotten people chest binders. We know that bras and undergarments are sometimes more expensive, so we’ve got some of those and this year we’ve added menstrual products for anyone who menstruates. And this is all by donations,” Hall said.
Donations fluctuate throughout the semester, but the biggest time is during move-in and move-out when people are deciding what they need and what they don’t want anymore. These donations are cycled through and everything that is not kept goes to goodwill.
“Students are free to come take whatever they want, as much as they want and we go through quite a bit.”
This center has changed so many students’ lives for the better since its grand opening about a month ago.
The Center for Gender and Sexual Diversity is open to anyone and everyone who is looking for a place to hang out or to find people they may have something in common with. The lounge is open during business hours or at night if it is reserved.
