AU is one of the best colleges for queer women in the country, according to a ranking from the website SheWired.
The ranking cited the Center for Diversity and Inclusion, the LGBT community in D.C. and the school’s policies toward transgender students as reasons queer women should consider AU.
Kerry Diekmann, coordinator of women’s and gender equity programming for the CDI, said AU students have played a large role in creating a culture of inclusion.
“I think we were ranked for a number of reasons, and probably a huge chunk of it is the students themselves,” she said. “They are very activist-oriented, and a lot of students are very passionate about social justice, and that’s some of the reasons why they come to AU.”
Diekmann also credited the center’s advocacy for making name changes easier, gender-inclusive restrooms and trans-friendly health insurance policies. She said all three things make AU an appealing place for LGBT students, staff and faculty.
“On the other side of things, we have the academics that are focused in LGBTQ identities and communities,” Diekmann said. “We have the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies major, a queer studies minor and then there’s just lots of academic programming on campus along with social events going on at the center.”
Lex Loro, a senior in the School of Communication, has dedicated her on-campus and off-campus life to queer activism, most recently moderating a Rainbow Speakers Bureau panel for administrative officials.
“I’ve done about every queer thing you could think to do on AU’s campus,” Loro said. “I don’t speak for all queer women, but I can say when that ranking came out, it was a really special and important thing for me because I had been directly working for the past three years to make that happen.”
In addition to serving as the executive director of Queers & Allies last year, Loro currently works in the CDI office as the LGBT curriculum intern and training director for LGBT peer educators.
“When you do direct-action, community-building work, you see the immediate payoffs as people start to come to things and start to want to be more involved, and that’s rewarding,” Loro said. “But to see it recognized on a big scale, that apparently we’re doing something right, is really cool.”
Lauren Canty, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences who serves as president for the LGBT and racially-inclusive sorority Gamma Rho Lambda, agreed that AU was a great place for queer women but was surprised to see it ranked so highly.
“If you look for the community, you’ll find it, but it’s definitely not like a big old sign on the door, ‘Come here if you’re a queer woman,’” Canty said. “If you’re open to finding yourself, so to speak, and becoming more comfortable in a LGBTQ identity, you’ll definitely find it if you reach out. If you don’t have any queer friends, if you’re a freshman during Welcome Week who can’t find anyone who’s queer, march right over to CDI. It’s incredibly helpful.”
Although Loro said she believes in AU’s policies of inclusion, her experience has by no means been perfect. Loro encourages LGBT students who experience discrimination to reach out to Matt Bruno, the CDI’s coordinator for LGBTQ programming.
“I’ve had issues in the classroom, I’ve had issues at the health center, I’ve had issues with Public Safety,” Loro said. “For me, those are unfortunate realities of being queer and out in this society that’s trying to shift toward more inclusionary practices, and it sucks, but based on what I know from other queer women at other universities, AU is a pretty good spot to be.”
Canty said her sorority’s close bonds and different take on Greek life has helped her celebrate several aspects of her identity.
“It’s exciting because you can have so many different aspects of your identity that you can be very proud of, and you can address them all at the same time,” Canty said. “If you’re me, bisexual and black, I don’t necessarily have to join a historically black sorority or be in Queers & Allies. It’s very intersectional in that way.”
According to Loro, students at Georgetown and GW have looked toward Queers & Allies in the past few years as an intersectional model for their own organizations.
“It’s not perfect. We definitely need to do a better job of getting over the hurdle of supporting students of color,” Loro said. “There was a stigma for so long that Queers & Allies did not do that, so you’re not going to turn that around in a year, two years. But we’re making great progress. It’s a lot better here than it is at Georgetown and GW.”
AU’S Gamma Rho Lambda chapter has existed for about three years, according to Canty. As the chapter grows, Canty said she hopes to see members engage in activism within the larger LGBT community in D.C.
“It’s really important for us to get outside of the bubble of AU and realize that, ‘hey, there are queer people who exist in the city of D.C. that are not on campus,’ Canty said. “We want to sort of, in the spirit of AU, not only be inclusive, but put that service forward. We want to be more than the ‘lesbian sorority.’ We want to prove that we’re not just all talk, that we’re also action as well.”
Loro wants to see a similar outcome in AU’s culture around identity, with students making fewer assumptions about their peers’ sexualities or gender identities.
“Queer women can be anything,” Loro said. “Sometimes when AU students are talking about LGBTQ issues, or trans issues, or queer issues, I want to say that I’m not a concept. I’m not an issue. I’m a person. I’m a reality.”
