On February 23rd, 2023, BU’s President Brown & Provost Morrison announced the creation of an LGBTQIA+ Student Resource Center & forthcoming centralized LGBTQIA+ website, per the recommendations in our Final Report on LGBTQIA+ BU Students.This change results from years of tireless student advocacy, including our year-long research that discovered BU is far behind peer institutions in providing institutional LGBTQIA+ student support.
We are thrilled that BU is beginning to invest in the direct, identity-based student support needed to create a more equitable institutional climate.
The Center—scheduled to open this Fall—will offer “programming, dialogues, intersectional community-building, & other resources.” The Center will also be responsible for implementing the remaining recommendations in our Final Report, including working with BU Housing to address safety & access barriers for TGNCI students, supporting external & internal evaluations of BU’s inclusive practices, & implementing regular LGBTQIA+ inclusivity training options for BU community members.
Beyond community building, policy advocacy & structural change must be an integral part of the Center’s duties. We hope the Center will take a holistic approach & advocate alongside students on individual & systemic levels.
Throughout our Report, we emphasize the necessity of an intersectional Center that prioritizes the inclusivity & safety of our QTBIPOC & TGNCI student communities. Dating back to the 1969 Student Homophile League, the cisgender white gay community at BU has decentered the needs of QTBIPOC & TGNCI folks from their activism; this has led to BU’s current climate, which centers cisgender & white LGBTQIA+ folks while failing to adequately support those with intersecting marginalized identities. As such, those involved in creating this Center & the Center’s future staff must prioritize the needs of QTBIPOC & TGNCI community members.
In the words of our Task Force Advisor, JAKE Small, we must “hold this Center (& the creation of it) accountable to best practices. Identity work is sacred & BU students deserve our commitment to excellence. We expect a truly innovative & fierce advocate for social justice, identity consciousness, & inclusive excellence to take on the coveted role as the inaugural Director of this space.”
BU must also ensure the Center’s Director & future staff receive adequate resources (especially funding) & support to fulfill their responsibilities & implement meaningful, sustainable changes.
While the creation of this Center is a historic win, it is crucial to recognize that there still must be continuous, concerted effort to improve BU's culture & climate for LGBTQIA+ students. The lack of institutional support & responsiveness, platforming of transphobic rhetoric, exploitation of student activists, lasting damage of the Silber era, & centering of cis whiteness has persisted for decades at this institution; the creation of a Center is only one step in remedying these long-standing issues.
We strongly caution against complacency; this Center will not mark a utopian “post-homophobic” era for our institution – there is much work to be done!
We also emphasize that it is not the sole responsibility of the forthcoming Center to ensure BU is inclusive & welcoming of LGBTQIA+ students: all departments, offices, centers, & individuals across BU are responsible for creating the culture & climate. There must be a University-wide culture shift.
We particularly urge student-facing offices such as the Dean of Students Office to address the pervasive structural & cultural issues within their office that continue to harm LGBTQIA+ BU community members, especially QTBIPOC & TGNCI students.
Thank you to all who shared their experiences with us in our climate survey, to our incredible Task Force Advisors, to all who have read our Final Report, engaged with us, & supported our efforts, & to those in University leadership positions taking necessary steps to align their practices with our recommendations.
We hope that our Task Force’s work can set a precedent for creating additional identity-based institutional resources & serve as an effective model for future generations of student activists.
Our work is far from done: we must continue to work together with humility, determination, & a fierce commitment to justice & progress, & never forget the transformative power of collaborative community-led activism.
In community,
The LGBTQIA+ BU Student Task Force