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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Friday, March 29, 2024

LGBT Center restarts Queer Men's discussion group

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 The LGBT Center restarted the Queer Men's Group, now the center's seventh discussion group on campus, last week, according to LGBT Center Director Nino Testa.

The open group will meet weekly for sessions facilitated by Nick Whitney (LA '16), graduate coordinator at the LGBT Center. "Hopefully, [the Queer Men’s Group] is going to be a space where people can talk about things that they need to talk about and need to sift through with a supportive group of people,” Whitney said.

Testa concurred, saying that the Queer Men's Group will function as a place to find mutual support.

“[The Queer Men’s Group] is [about] connecting with other people who share similar identities, processing what’s been going on this week or some things that are coming up, what is campus climate like right now, what are some struggles that we’re going through right now, finding support,” he said.

The discussion group met for the first time on Sept. 27 and had a strong first meeting, according to Whitney.

"We just got to know each other, we set some community agreements which felt really good, and then we just sort of like popcorned bunch of discussion topics that might feel pertinent to the group,” Whitney said.

In years past, the LGBT Center had provided a similar opportunity for queer men on campus, but it was discontinued due to lack of student interest, according to Testa and Whitney.

“Two years ago when I started [at the LGBT Center], the Queer Men’s Group [had] kind of devolved. It wasn’t meeting regularly, and it was kind of just a catch-all space, like whoever wanted to come would just hang out,” Testa said. “I didn’t really think it was a very intentional space, and when I got here there really wasn’t energy for there to be a queer men’s group.”

However, current students such as sophomore Arnold Castaneda have expressed interest in such a group and feel that it could be a beneficial and empowering asset to the Tufts community.

“I feel that a Queer Men's Group would be beneficial to the Tufts community," Castaneda told the Daily in an email. "I am not sure if there is high student demand for this space, but I definitely think that it may be an unspoken need on this campus, and once it is organized, it would have many participants.”

Many faculty and staff members have also been talking about having an intentional and organized space for queer men to discuss their identities, Testa said. He noted that the LGBT Center as a whole was previously perceived as a space largely for gay-identifying men but that an intentional space within the LGBT Center is now needed.

“I was hearing from some students, and actually from some faculty and staff, that they felt that the LGBT Center wasn’t really a space where queer men felt like there were like a lot of opportunities to come meet each other and discuss their identities as queer men,” Testa said.

Castaneda said he was hopeful for the Queer Men’s Group but that he has some reservations about what that space might represent.

“A particular reservation I have is that while I am gay, I am also a person of color. One concern I have is that the queer movement is white-washed, excluding the intersectional experiences of people of color," he said. "Therefore, if this group is organized, I would be more inclined to attend if there is some sort of awareness brought to the space."

Testa and Whitney both agreed that a challenge for this group would be creating a space in which all identities are affirmed and ensuring that historically-marginalized voices are heard.

“One of my fears with this queer men’s group was I feared that it would sort of reproduce a microcosm of what Tufts already is to a lot of people, which is like a white queer men’s space and so, as facilitator, I’m trying [to] actively push against that notion and to make sure that the term 'queer men,' as it intersects with sexuality, gender and race is made explicit and is talked about,” Whitney said.

Whitney stressed that the success of the Queer Men’s Group rests in the hands of the students who will drive the group's conversations.

“I see it being whatever the people who want to come want it to be,” he said.