COLLEGE STATION, Texas — When the Texas legislature passed Senate Bill 17, they took away many diversity, equity and inclusion offices and initiatives at public universities.
Texas A&M University quickly compiled and by Jan. 1, they closed their office for diversity, which included closing the LGBTQ+ Pride Center, a place where students could find resources for counseling and psychological services.
Queer Empowerment Council's Internal Affairs Officer, Jackson Bailey described the reason for their student group's creation, “The leaders of all the organizations that were a part of Draggieland realized that we couldn’t trust the school to be there for us.”
Now as they gear up for this year’s Draggieland show, the newly formed Queer Empowerment Council wants students to know that there is still a community they can turn to.
“QEC is now up and running we have members we’re putting on events, we’re here and ready to take on what we need to keep the community alive and active here,” said Draggieland Showrunner and QEC Events Chair, Alex Gonte.
With the Pride Center gone, the Queer Empowerment Council is having to bear all responsibilities and supply all resources for their group on their own.
“They had all these resources funds and had people working towards it versus QEC we’re all students and it's kind of daunting because that on top of our regular course load its pretty something,” described QEC President, Sophia Ahmed.
The GEC has had to take on the many events and programs that the Pride Center had previously provided for students such as pride mentors, coming out monologues, and the lavender graduation, a separate celebration for LGBTQ students.
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