In a town with no gay, drag or lesbian bars, the LGBT Center is kicking off the semester by creating its own inclusive queer space in Athens.
The center will be hosting a Spring Fling happy hour 4 p.m. Friday at Jackie O’s Pub & Brewery, 24 W. Union St.
Delfin Bautista, director of LGBT Center, said the event will take the conversation away from campus.
“It’s just an opportunity for the community to gather in a social setting outside of the center, outside of the university and just gather and celebrate the beginning of the semester and the semester to come,” Bautista said.
Sarah Tucker Jenkins, program coordinator for the LGBT Center, has been a part of planning the event, said this is a way to balance social events and educational events with the center as well as build a community.
“You can’t be talking about deep queer theory all day long; you need to be able to also just get together and have some community,” Jenkins said. “For a lot of LGBT youth one of the things that they lose if they come out to family or loved ones who don’t accept them is a sense of community and at the LGBT center, part of our goal is to provide some community for folks.”
Megan Villegas, graduate assistant for the center, said she is excited for the event and said for people who are unsure about attending, the event is casual, with no pressures.
“You can come sort of quietly, check it out, scan the room, see if there is somebody you know … and you can just grab a couple drinks and then go,” Villegas said. “I think the stakes are pretty low if it’s somebody who is sort of hesitant in getting involved in the center or is not sure if this is really for them.”
Bautista said the center will be providing some snacks, but beverages are on guests. For Jenkins, she said this is an opportunity to create safe and queer spaces off campus for people.
“If you’re queer, you cannot assume that people around you are queer, basically at any point, and it can actually be harmful to your safety to assume so,” Jenkins said. “I think that makes it especially important for us to kind of create some more queer spaces so that our LGBT students and faculty and staff and community members can have places to meet each other and make some friendships and just find some comfort in knowing that one another are there.”
If You Go:
What: Spring Fling LGBT
Welcome Back Happy Hour
When: 4 p.m. Friday
Where: Jackie O’s Pub &
Brewery, 24 W. Union St.
Admission: Free
@reb_barnes
rb605712@ohiou.edu
