The Pride Student Union’s primary goal is to create community spaces and an atmosphere of empowerment for LGBTQ+ students here at FSU through everything that they do. Being a queer student here at FSU, I was immediately attracted to their identity nights program. Pride hosts seven different identity nights, which are; QTIPOC, Multi+, Queer Femina Perfecta, Out of The House In The Closet (OHIC), Aro/Ace, DisabiliQTs and Gender Oddesy. In my interview with Cashira Cherry, the treasurer for pride, she stated: “the purpose of the identity nights is to create a space for people on campus who have that specific identity within the pride community.” I was attracted to the QTIPOC and Multi+ identity nights since I identify with both. QTIPOC stands for queer, trans, intersex, people of color and speaks for itself in terms of who attends. Multi+ night is for anyone who is attracted to more than one gender and or experiences more than one gender. As these nights are the only known community space for these identities, the night is only open to people of those identities. After reading this and looking back at the identity nights, an observation to be made is that there is not any night for non-disabled, non-closeted, gay white men unless they identified as a femme individual, in which case they could go to the Queer Femme Perfecta night which is for queer womxn and femme individuals.
As I look through the previous events QTIPOC has hosted, there is no typical meeting for them. Some meetings are more structured and geared towards discussing social issues like HIV/AIDS and toxic masculinity within POC cultures, while others are more of a loose format and consist of painting while listening to trap music or just venting about any problems anyone might be having. They sometimes host study sessions, have a table during market Wednesday, or even a friend thanksgiving. Since QTIPOC only has two meetings a month, the club leaders recommend joining the QTIPOC group chat to stay involved. In the group chat, members can discuss anything they want or feel relevant. It is a very freeing format, as members can post about the shows they’re watching, their dogs, or anything else they want to talk about.
Unfortunately, the Multi+ night is currently suspended, as there is no facilitator to plan events and run meetings at the moment. Multi+ night, though, is a lot more consistent than the QTIPOC nights are. Most sessions are an open dialogue where people can discuss anything relevant to their identities. During this meeting, the facilitator would step in and get everyone all on the same topic, so the meeting is more than just a bunch of smaller groups having a normal conversation. Multi+ sometimes hosts events.
Many queer people are coming to FSU from high schools that don’t have any pride organizations, and as a result, they may not have ever been in a space with people of their identity before. Through these identity nights, people can meet others with a shared identity and have conversations they may not have been able to have previously. These meeting can also be very empowering for the queer population. A prime example of this would be the OHIC night. This night is for anyone who is questioning their sexuality or not out yet. This period is very significant in a queer person life, and having people to be able to relate to can take some of the pressure and anxiety off that comes with coming out.
Having different nights for people with different identities instead of one big night for everyone in pride is a fantastic idea, as not everyone has the same experiences being a queer person. Having separate meetings allows for smaller issues don’t affect the majority of queer people to be discussed, whereas, in a mass setting, they might not even come to light.