Students launch two new Queer publications

Sarah Siegel Guest Writer

As a freshman, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgeneder and Queer (LGBTQ) activist Kelsey Smith ’07 felt the LGBTQ community was in tatters. “[Queer Coalition Vassar College] QCVC numbers [had] dwindled to nothing by the end of the year, in the spring it was held together mostly by a few upperclassmen who remembered the days when Drag shows were a staple of campus entertainment and Vassar was still considered a very queer college,” said Smith in an e-mailed statement. While Smith says the community remains fragmented, the past few semesters have seen a concerted effort to make LGBTQ issues and groups more visible on campus, the most recent manifestation of which is a new online publication created to give LGBTQ issues a voice.

On Thursday, Feb. 22, a group of Vassar students will launch The Vassar Quo (Quo), a weekly blog dedicated to political and cultural issues and events concerning the LGBTQ community at Vassar and beyond. Co-Editor in Chief Sarah Brown ’09 said that the publication would not only address larger community issues, but would also be a source of information about what to do on the weekend and offer music-and-arts related stories from Vassar, the greater Hudson Valley, and New York City. Alison Abreu-Garcia ’08, is also Co-Editor in Chief.

“It matters that young Vassar queers don’t know which one is the gay bar in New Paltz or that a LGBTQ Community Center opened in Kingston two weeks ago,” Smith said. “Quo will provide a great space to keep the campus informed on these issues on our campus, in the Hudson Valley and in the world beyond.”

Brown stressed that the blog format is an ideal format for a public forum. A blog is easily updateable, reaches a larger audience, and allows for the posting of appropriate links, as well as comments from its readers.

Quo’s appearance comes a year after the formation of ACT OUT, an activist group that works towards LGBTQ equality, and only a few months before the launch of another publication this spring related to LGBTQ issues sponsored by The Blegen House, a center of resources for LGBTQ students and community members. Advised by English Professor Paul Russell, the publication will, "be published in print in a literary style with fiction, non-fiction, art, poems, etc." according to Editor in Chief Matthew Leung '09. Its focus will be LGBTQ issues in general, but will welcome pieces having to do with sexuality in general.

Quo staff writer Alex Rodabaugh ’10 said in an e-mailed statement that as an incoming freshman, he felt that “there was plenty of support, but considering the mass of LGBTQ people on campus who do not take advantage of the support here, it's almost unnecessary. However, it’s also possible that many people are just apathetic, but are happy to know there is someting and someone out there who will bring up issues and who will be there if something occurs.”

Quo currently has a staff of around 10, who will meet Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. in the College Center, and welcome interested writers from the student, professor, and local populations. There was a launch party for the blog (quo.vassar.edu) on Feb. 22 in the Jade Parlor from 5-7 p.m.