SJUPride members, students and other St. Joe’s community members joined a Zoom meeting from their homes to share and listen to common experiences of members of the LGBTQIA+ community during SJUPride’s second annual Queeries event on Sept. 24.
A panel of six students, faculty and staff answered questions submitted by attendees about their experiences as members of the LGBT community. While last year’s event was in October to promote Unity Month, this year’s event happened to coincide with bisexuality awareness week.
Stephanie Zellner ’22, SJUPride co-president, was one of the panelists who spoke during the event. Zellner said she wanted to share her unique experiences on the panel in hopes of helping others.
“When people are willing to share their life stories and their narratives, it is both an opportunity to get to know people on a deeper level who you wouldn’t otherwise get to, but also [an opportunity] to have questions that you might have answered from people with lived experiences,” Zellner said.
Holding the event over Zoom made it difficult to “read the room,” according to Genna Kindelberger ’22, SJUPride social chair. But Kindelberger said that did not prevent SJUPride from accomplishing their goal.
“[The goal] is spreading awareness and knowledge about different aspects of the LGBTQ community and what pride does at St. Joe’s,” Kindelberger said.
Kindelberger was the moderator for the event, asking the panelists the questions students submitted prior to the event through an online form. The conversations centered around understanding the experiences of others and finding community.
“I think it’s so important for everyone to feel comfortable asking questions and learning about themselves, and the different communities and the intersections between everyone’s different identities,” Kindelberger said.
While it was incredibly rewarding to share her narrative and see those in attendance learning from it, Zellner said sharing was also challenging.
“Volunteering some very personal and very traumatic experiences together took a major toll on me,” Zellner said.
Alaina Head ’23 said she went to the event to learn what SJUPride is planning for the year and to hear narratives like Zellner’s.
“I want to learn how to be a better ally,” Head said. “I know that listening to other people’s stories would help with that and help me to understand them better.”
Head said she learned a lot about the underlying privileges of her intersecting identities.
“I learned a lot about people as individuals and about the LGBTQ community as a whole,” Head said. “[I learned] the things [LGBT community members] go through that I do not go through, and how they navigate campus versus how I would.”
Nevertheless, Kindelberger said she feels that Queeries was successful. She said SJUPride plans on hosting it again next year, and continuing to make it an annual event.
“People who come can feel confident that the answers they are getting are a healthy mix of fact and feelings, and they are lived experiences of people who are truly affected,” Zellner said.
