On Queer: On space

Recently, we’ve come to realize that Rainbow House is quite small. Situated in Hillside Apartments, our apartment comes with eight bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a common room. We are not wheelchair-accessible, and we have to sit on tables if we all want to meet in the common room.

But we didn’t realize how small the space was until we toured Crafts House. From a foyer the size of our kitchen to a living room larger than one of our doubles, we were rather confused. So we did some research.

According to a Tufts Observer article from March 26, 1998, Rainbow House was requested in fall 1997, approved in the spring and established in fall 1998. The space began in Latin Way and lasted until renovations in 1999, when we were moved to our current location.

According to the university, Rainbow House began in Latin Way because all special interest houses must spend their first year on campus. However, we are one of two remaining houses in a dorm, the other being Green House. We are the smallest of the group houses, which is rather ironic, given that a conservative estimate of 10 percent would project a queer undergraduate population of around 500 students -- 1,000 if you include graduate students. So why are we the smallest house?

Our frustration mounted as we continued to read the aforementioned article: “The residents originally had wanted to live in a wood-frame house because, as is explained in their application, they felt that a ‘house would provide the stability and security of a [queer] safe space that would be difficult to achieve in a dormitory or suite.’”

We are expected to be a cultural hub on campus catering to the queer community, and yet most students don’t know we exist, let alone where we are. Even if students knew, we don’t have a front door; you have to bang on our window until somebody hears you. With all furniture removed, 40 people can stand in our common room. Our kitchen has enough counter space for a dish rack and microwave, meaning we can’t cook large meals. We are not a hub on campus.

We are an apartment that happens to be queer.

So what’s the issue? The university can obviously afford new space. In the past 20 years, Tufts has undergone extensive renovations and expansions, including but not limited to Gantcher Center, Anderson Hall, Bello Field, Sophia Gordon Hall, Tisch gym, a boathouse and the Interfaith Center. There are clearly available houses in the neighborhood, since Kappa Alpha Theta moved into a new university-owned house in 2013.

For 20 years, the university has not respected our requests for space, favoring athletics, sciences and, most egregiously, Greek life. And while we are aware that donations and grants are specific to groups on campus, there is no reason that a university that charges students almost $70,000 per year couldn’t afford a queer house on campus in the past two decades.

So we have a request. Celebrate our 20th anniversary with the one thing we have asked for since our inception: space. A space to be queer, to form a community and gather and be ourselves and just exist. Because for 20 years, we have not had the space to do that, and that needs to change.