LGBTQIA Resource Center community coordinator highlights some of the center’s important resources and upcoming events
The UC Davis Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual Resource Center (LGBTQIA RC) won best student resource center this year with 32.5% of the student vote. It has continuously provided the UC Davis community with an open, safe and inclusive space since its opening in 1994. It is committed to using dynamic, collaborative programming to fight various forms of oppression and advocate for its mission and values.
Along with the rest of UC Davis during this past year, the LGBTQIA RC has transitioned from its physical location on the first floor of the Student Community Center to a virtual setting.
Echo Rodriguez, a community coordinator for the LGBTQIA RC and a second-year political science major, expressed that they feel pride and excitement in knowing that their work at the LGBTQIA RC, such as organizing events and doing public outreach, impacts their community.
“Working at these student centers is to ultimately serve the students,” Rodriguez said. “That’s the end goal of doing this work.”
One of the virtual services that the LGBTQIA RC offers is its Community Discord server. Boasting well over 200 current members, the Community Discord is a free virtual space members can use to build community, meet and talk with one another while having fun. The Community Discord is one of the LGBTQIA RC’s biggest successes since transitioning to a virtual setting and was made by one co-worker’s labor, according to Rodriguez.
“There’s always something going on with the [Community Discord],” Rodriguez said. “I am part of [the Community Discord] myself, so I will always get notifications of people interacting with each other. It’s been really nice to see how people are still finding ways to come together and find that sense of community in the virtual world we live in now.”
The LGBTQIA RC will celebrate Pride Month 2021 throughout the month of May by holding programs every week. Rodriguez is most excited for the Grad/Prof Student Trivia Night held on May 18 due to the need for events specifically catered to graduate students. They also recommended the Pride Crochet Plushies event and highlighted the importance of resources like the Gender Affirmation Closet, which provides free clothing to transgender and gender nonconforming students.
Rodriguez said that with “Critical Love” named and described in its list of values, the LGBTQIA RC works with love at its core in order to welcome and celebrate individuals and have them be their complete, complex selves.
“Any work that we do, we always put our love into, and we always want to serve and meet the needs of our community,” Rodriguez said. “The center is still providing those feelings of community, togetherness and everything else which made the center great before. It’s still great now.”
Anyone interested in receiving updates from the LGBTQIA RC can sign up for its listserv (weekly newsletter) on its website. The LGBTQIA RC also posts updates on its Instagram (@ucdlgbtqia) and Facebook pages.
Written by: Jazmin Segura — features@theaggie.org
