Editor’s note: Like Humans of New York’s “daily glimpses into the lives of strangers on the streets,” Humans of CSU tells the stories of the people who populate our campus. Written by Collegian staff and told in first person from the subject’s point of view, this series aims to make each individual on campus relatable.
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Queer is a broad term for the LGBT community, and it’s because LGBT, the acronym, leaves a lot of people out sometimes because there are so many different identities.
I’m in a relationship with a masculine-centered woman of color, so we’ve kind of run into interesting things.
I already had a difficult time on this campus being a woman of color, especially because I went to a high school in which I was surrounded with primarily black students or Hispanic students, and coming here, I definitely hated my experience at first. I felt very alone.
I hadn’t really explored my sexuality yet because I was mostly trying to adjust to race. I had past partners who were women, and I wouldn’t hug them in public or anything like that because I didn’t want anyone to know.
So I got into a relationship with my partner in August and I had never been that comfortable with my sexuality. My partner is very comfortable with PDA and things like that, so going into it, I was very resistant to wanting to hold her hand on this campus because I knew people were going to stare at us.
As time has gone on, I’ve been more comfortable holding her hand, but it’s very hard because we often get a lot of crazy looks.
I stand out more than I ever have, so I’ve had to force myself to become comfortable with my sexuality. Working on being completely comfortable with who I am has definitely been a journey. A lot of it had to do with being confident in myself.
Another big thing for us has been feeling excluded, but I’d say it’s gotten a lot better now.
I started a student organization on campus called Colors for queer people of color, so that’s been a really good space for us. I wanted there to be a space on campus for people who identify as LGBT who are of color.
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I hope this campus becomes more open to a lot of the different identities so that people like me and people like my partner feel comfortable and have a space on campus.
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