Finding the right resources to fit your needs can be difficult, especially if you’re in a brand-new town and campus. TRU’s Manager of Gender and Sexual Diversity, Noah Fischer, is working towards making resources more accessible to TRU’s queer-identifying students.
Fischer will organize several resource tables for LGBTQ2IA+ students in collaboration with TRU’s Wellness Centre every month. The most recent table was on Oct. 16 and focused on LGBTQ2IA+ History Month. Next month’s table will be hosted in the International Building On Nov. 19 from 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and will feature topics relating to the Transgender Day of Remembrance.
After becoming the Manager of Gender and Sexual Diversity on campus, Fischer took stock of the students’ needs. During his research, Fischer recognized that a lack of dedicated spaces for queer students meant that many of them were missing out on accessing valuable resources.
“I think a very direct significance of having these [resource tables] and making these topics visible on campus has a lot to do with the fact that queer representation and safer spaces for queer students on campus have and continue to be limited,” Fischer said. “I think I found myself in a very lucky position to be the one that gets to start a lot of this stuff.”
Fischer explained that many of the event tables will include trivia, games and prizes for students, and numerous resources for queer-identifying students. November’s table will be the only event excluding such activities due to its sensitive topics on grief and loss. Fischer’s goal with these events is to create interactive spaces for students who are searching for their safe space on campus.
“Often, what these events involve is networking and disseminating information and creating space for people to express curiosity and ask questions, share their own experiences, and I always kind of bring a plethora of resources,” Fischer said.
Fischer is working towards creating more spaces for queer-identifying students to meet new people, find role models and network with allies and other community members.
“I’ve come across a lot of people that are feeling that sense of being lost or not finding the community that they feel safe to be in or explore themselves with,” he said. “I think in the context of students, we’re coming together, we’re building a network and we’re making ourselves visible to say, ‘this is a safe space for you to be in and there are other people here too.’”
Fischer encourages individuals to reach out to him and provide feedback on how to better create future events and resources for students. In order to advocate for more LGBTQ2IA+ spaces, Fischer tells students to go to events, ask questions and share feedback. A feedback and suggestion box can be found on the Gender and Sexual Diversity webpage here.
TRU’s Gender and Sexual Diversity Instagram also contains information on upcoming events and initiatives.