Building community through university’s LGBT Resource Center

Charlie Curtis loved their own experience with the queer resource center at their undergrad institution, and works to provide a similarly impactful experience at St. Cloud State University.

Curtis was named director of SCSU’s LGBT Resource Center in July 2022. In that role, they work to provide a space where students feel welcome and can be exactly who they are.

“I had a really lovely experience with the queer center at my undergrad institution and it was really a big part of getting me through undergrad, just in terms of my personal development, and I really wanted to be able to contribute to others getting that same kind of support,” they said. “As a young person growing up, I didn't know any out adults until I got to college, and that's part of why my experience in undergrad was so personally powerful. For the first time I was seeing — not famous people who were out — but regular professional adults who were out and living their lives. That enabled me to see a different kind of future for myself, and so I'm hopeful that having the Center and having someone whose job it is to do this work helps people find the community they need in the immediate moment. It also can be a way of helping people see that you can be an out and successful trans adult and queer adult, because that was something I didn't get myself.”

Curtis said the Center provides a mix of social and educational programming, as is the case with most of SCSU’s identity centers. The LGBT Center is currently gearing up for the 2025 Twin Cities Pride Festival from June 28-29, and also is involved in St. Cloud’s Pride Week each September.

“Pride started as a commemoration of the Stonewall riots. Stonewall is certainly not the only thing that changed the trajectory; there were a lot of other similar events that aren't always as high profile or as remembered. But it’s a recognition of LGBTQ+ folks saying, ‘We’re not bad, we're not wrong. We're not doing anything that should be shameful. And we're going to push back against the oppression and marginalization that we've been experiencing for so long,’” Curtis said. “Pride can seem like just a party to people sometimes, but it's a party that responds to the idea that we should be ashamed of ourselves and should be ashamed of who we are attracted to, we should be ashamed of who we are, we should be ashamed of what our bodies are like. Instead, Pride is a response that says, ‘No, we're good.’ It's really a gathering point for a lot of people and can be the highlight of their year to come and have this chance to be around other people and see the support of the organizations, businesses, what have you that want to be there. Pride is for us to continue to say, ‘We’re good just how we are.’ I think at its best, that is what Pride is trying to do.”

In addition to participating in local and regional events, SCSU’s LGBT Resource Center offers drop-in hours where students can utilize the space. The Center also hosts events such as documentary screenings or speaking engagements, and works to serve SCSU students, faculty, staff, administrators and alumni, as well as the greater St. Cloud community. Individuals of all identities are welcome and encouraged to participate in its programs.

Of course, there are challenges the Center faces, and Curtis works to assist community members as they face uncertain times.

“There are a lot of inaccuracies — some unintentional where people just don't realize or don't have the information — and sometimes purposefully inaccurate information that is being circulated about all diversity work, all inclusion work. The work we do is not in fact controversial and we are not exclusive. That narrative that identity centers or DEI work is providing special treatment to people is really trying to undermine the legitimacy of what we do and is trying to make it seem as if we're a problem,” Curtis said. “We're trying to help everybody, and there are students who are straight, there are students who are cisgender who are helped by this space, and that's true for all the other identity centers. We have our main focus, but we all are working with everybody.

“In addition to that, there's a particular intensity in the rhetoric around queer folks, and in particular trans folks right now that is really challenging. It's personally challenging to have to face it every day and then it's challenging to figure out how do I make sure students are as OK as they can be? They're not going to be totally OK, given some of the things people are saying and some of the legislation that's being passed. We're facing very concrete attacks on our basic rights, access to basic health care, access to accurate identity documents — those kinds of legal pieces that we had made such good progress in terms of getting people access to those things, so it's really disheartening to see it under so much threat and going away for a lot of people. We're fortunate that Minnesota law hasn't changed dramatically as of yet, but even seeing it in other states around us scares people and scares me.”

As the nation and the world navigate an ever-changing social and political climate, Curtis and the SCSU LGBT Resource Center work to provide a safe community for everyone.

“My biggest hope is that queer and trans students and students generally know there's somebody who sees them, and that who they are is not just OK, but valued,” they said. “Whether they actually come into the space or interact with us directly or not, I hope the work of having the Center helps people to feel there is a space for them, not just in higher ed, but in life.”