Queers and Allies aims to create a safe space for students and faculty of all different backgrounds and identities. They host weekly, non-mandatory meetings where members play games, make crafts and can interact in a comfortable environment.
“There are situations where people can’t always be themselves,” Miranda Miller, junior elementary education major and president of Q&A, said. “So we want to be able to create that space where people don’t have to be afraid to be themselves.”
Q&A’s main goal is to provide a safe space, but they also aim to extend that safe space to all of campus. They work to highlight LGBTQ+ issues on campus and educate the community through various events during the year.
The main event hosted by Q&A is their annual Drag Show every February where they invite drag queens from Chicago to perform on campus. Q&A is also in charge of organizing NMU’s participation in the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Asexual College Conference every year.
On campus, Q&A members are invited to also work with LGBTQ+ youth and volunteer in idea forums that educate faculty and staff at NMU on how to make their learning spaces more inclusive. While these events are all open to members, they are by no means mandatory. The idea is for students to attend meetings as regularly or irregularly as they feel comfortable.
“It’s a melting pot of different types of people,” Avery Zahlmann, junior theater technology and design major and vice president of Q&A, said. “We just want to have fun, we just want to hang out and make sure that people have a community here on campus.”
Students interested in joining Q&A can contact them by emailing [email protected].
