A rainbow, heart-shaped sticker that reads “Love Wins” sits atop a pile of Pride-related stickers on a table advertising SPH酷儿联盟 at the spring student organization fair. 图片来源：梅根·琼斯

学校新闻

‘A Safe Space’ Queer Alliance Student Leader Talks Pride Month and 更多的

SPH酷儿联盟的新成员Lucas Nurmi讨论了他加入学生团体的原因，以及他如何希望QA能够成为一个全年庆祝酷儿身份的安全空间。

卢卡斯·努尔米在描述他是如何接受自己的酷儿身份时，直言不讳。 他说，他是被恐惧驱使出来的。

It was his first year of college studying public health at 德鲁大学, a small Methodist university in Madison, New Jersey and Amy Coney Barrett had just been confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Nurmi worried that the Court’s increased conservative majority and Coney Barrett’s views on marriage equality and transgender rights would jeopardize existing legal protections and erode progress towards securing equal rights for LGBTQ+ people.

“I was like, ‘I need to get this ball rolling before we start seeing—God forbid—criminalization of queer identities,” says Nurmi. “I want the people in my life to know this is important to me.”

高中时，努尔米结识了一小群酷儿朋友，他认为这些朋友在他探索自己身份的过程中给了他鼓励，但他在大学里很难找到一个同样有意义的社区。 “我紧紧抓住他们，把他们当作我的生命线，对此我非常感激，”他说。

2024年毕业后，努尔米搬到波士顿SPH就读，他很快就喜欢上了这座城市，但仍然发现很难建立有意义的联系。 Then, he happened to be in a meeting with 茱莉亚台北, assistant dean of careers and practicum, when she mentioned that SPH酷儿联盟 (QA) was currently meeting downstairs. 他下楼去赶活动的尾声，和志同道合的同伴们一起享用了一些泡菜片后，他报名加入了这个团体。

努尔米说：“我意识到，我真的想让它成为校园里一个更显眼的固定设施。” “We’re seeing a lot of our identity-based clubs lack membership. 带来我渴望已久的联系——我认为这真的很重要。”

Four members of QA’s executive board graduated this spring, including 艾莎Ghorashian who spoke with SPH on behalf of QA ahead of Pride month 去年. 努尔米是四位新成员之一。 Over the past year, the group has moved away from a traditional leadership structure for a more shared style of governance, reports 瑞安Wisniewski, assistant director of the practicum program and advisor to QA.

“Everyone pitches in and runs the club collectively without titles,” Wisniewski says. “It has worked miraculously. I am so proud of the QA and the work of the outgoing members who graduated and am excited to work closely with new e-board this fall.”

The student group has continued 他们的 successful series of “Lavender Lunches,” featuring faculty and staff members who either identify as queer or work on LGBTQIA+ issues. Guest speakers included 卡洛斯Rodriguez-Diaz, chair and professor of community health sciences; 盖伯瑞尔默奇森社区卫生科学助理教授； 大卫Jernigan卫生政策、法律和管理学教授； 凯蒂·柯林斯 and Allison赖利, director and assistant director of the LGBTQIA+ Student Resource Center at BU; 和Wisniewski)。 该组织还举办了读书俱乐部、游戏之夜、卡拉ok、塔罗牌派对，以纪念变性人能见度日，以及与其他波士顿大学酷儿亲密团体合作组织的其他几项活动。

“Taking over as advisor is one of the best decisions I have made in my 7+ years at SPH,” says Wisniewski. “As trans folks and queerness comes under attack at a national level, it is so important for SPH to have a space to welcome these 学生 and act as a safe place to be themselves during 他们的 demanding graduate course-load.”

Nurmi与SPH分享了他对QA发展的愿景，他对今天酷儿社区面临的挑战的看法，以及他对盟友的建议。

你提到今年秋季的首要任务之一是提高QA在校园的知名度。 你能详细说明一下QA的其他目标吗？你和其他组长讨论过什么？

Obviously, it’s been a really scary time for queer rights and human rights as a whole throughout the country, and we’re talking about how people want a safe place to be queer. 人们在寻找社交活动，在那里他们可以与其他酷儿人群见面，并与他人建立联系，所以我们想要更加强调社交活动——有趣的事情。 Even if it isn’t as directly related to being queer, [like what] we’ve had with the Lavender Lunches, we want to start having a wider variety of programming. Advertising has been pretty difficult because it’s just difficult to drum up interest when all you have is an Instagram. There are so many people who just aren’t on Instagram anymore, especially queer people who are avoiding Instagram and 脸谱网 because they don’t approve of Meta’s new policies that explicitly allow discrimination against transgender people.

对你来说，有意义的酷儿代表是什么，在校园里还是更广泛的地方？

I’m going to speak very broadly here, about multiple groups and not just queer groups, but I think we’re at a time period where people want to be explicitly told not just, “We are here for you, we support you,” we want explicit confirmation from the school administration, saying, “We will stand up for you if need be.” And, God forbid, something happens, “We will protect you.” I think that’s where a lot of my feelings are right now.

人们普遍认为，鉴于现任政府最近针对LGBTQ+权利的澳门威尼斯人注册行动，这对酷儿群体来说是一个特别困难的时期。 你认为社区面临的最突出的挑战是什么？你觉得社区目前需要什么？

I’ll start with what I think people are looking for the most, and again, it is just support from institutions and from 他们的 peers. If you’ve got queer friends, ask if they’re doing okay because it’s been a lot over the last few months. 压力太大了。 [Since] queer identity is something that you can, in many cases, hide, there’s a lot of people who are questioning if it’s physically safe to be out and queer right now, [or] if going back in the closet is better for them. Obviously, that’s an individual decision—I can’t mandate that random people stay out in order to fulfill some kind of social quota, but it is sad. 所以，如果你有一个朋友最后又回到了壁橱里，请密切关注。 Ask how they’re doing. Ask if they’re still okay discussing that kind of stuff with you, because maybe they like to only be out to close friends.

你是否正在做一些事情来照顾自己和你的心理健康？ 下个月你会参加什么同志游行吗？

I’ve been connecting more with my friends—that’s been really nice. A lot of my friends are also queer, so it’s nice to have that queer support group there. I’ve been volunteering. It’s good to make a difference. 这是一个为人们提供食物的组织。 Finding an organization, finding that kind of physical way that you can give back—I think it’s a good way to ground yourself and to help out people who might be in a bad spot. （我的意思是）将你的糟糕情绪转化为一件富有成效的事情——做志愿者，或者将你的愤怒转化为完成家务。

I went to New York City Pride in 2022, but I’m pretty COVID-conscious—I still mask as much as I can, so I haven’t really been a big event person. 但我真的很想去波士顿骄傲节！

What do you think makes for a strong ally, and how can folks in the SPH community who don’t identify as queer still show up for queer classmates?

I think there’s a lot of overthinking when it comes to being an ally, because people assume that being queer is this difficult identity. Really, it just comes down to you have to be nice and maybe practice someone’s pronouns a little bit if you’re having trouble. There are websites online that can help you practice, or you can just stand in front of a mirror and say, “Oh, I like 他们的 pants. 他们的 裤子真漂亮。 They’re so cool, they’re so good at video games.” You just practice a little bit if you’re having trouble with that because practice makes perfect. I think there is a lot of queer allies who are getting in 他们的 own heads [because] they’re worried that they’re not doing well. 我们很感激你关心我们。

电子邮件 sphqa@bu.edu 或在Instagram上留言QA (@busphqueeralliance)参与其中。