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Coming Out Debbie Event LGBTQ Organization Our Center Place Transgender

TINN – Trans in Northern Nevada

Left to right: Erica, Francesca, Valerie. Credit: Erica Pionke.

I was at Our Center last weekend to participate in their program “Women Who Brunch.” On the website, it is billed as a “monthly event [that] mixes great food and conversation to encourage the growth of community in a friendly nonstructured environment.  Le[d] by our own volunteer[,] Debbie Dyke.”

Yup, that’s our Debbie.

Credit: Erica Pionke, 2018.

At the same time, Trans in Northern Nevada, or TINN, was holding a board game event.

TINN was wrapping up, but Valerie and Francesca spent some time with me so I could learn more about their organization. Apparently, Valerie had spoken during the meeting and talked about her intersex status.

Francesca is the co-founder and president of TINN. She said that they wanted an opportunity where transgender folks could get out and meet each other and learn from each other. TINN started in 2011 after a prior group, which was centered around the bars, fell apart.

Francesca said that she transitioned in 2011, legally changed her name in 2013 and underwent surgery in 2015. She said she dressed in female clothing when she was a child. She wanted to play with dolls and play foursquare with the girls, but she would find herself in trouble with the adults. She learned she was different in 1970 from watching a movie, but continued to live in her assigned gender until 2011 when she started transitioning. She even married a woman in 1975, and started cross-dressing again in 1985.

She said they hold these TINN meetings to hear people’s stories.  She said that having these talks makes you feel good.  Sometimes the meetings have 6 people and sometimes 30.  They also do movie nights, hiking, bowling, and are always looking to plan other events, too. Francesca loves karate and will take anyone to learn karate for many reasons, including self-defense.

The best way to find TINN is through a group on Facebook and programming events at Our Center. You have to fill out a questionnaire to get on the Facebook group. Just make sure you’re not looking for a relationship–that’s not what this group is about. As of today, they have 246 members. They also put out a paper resource guide that you can pick up at Our Center.

She is very proud of helping people. Data indicate that 82% of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide. Only one person in their group has killed themselves.

When I asked Francesca what she wants people knew about TINN, she said she wished people knew that TINN is a safe group.  They accept everyone for who they are.  If the folks in TINN can help, they want to help you transition.  Having friends in a supportive trans group is the best thing you can do to not be alone.

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LGBTQ Organization Our Center Place

The Library is Queer…and Dogs!

Before you read this, check out my last blog on the Washoe County Library Downtown branch. The place is amazing. I give a little history, too.

Credit: Erica Pionke

The bulk of the library’s active LGBTQ events are the one or two Drag Queen Story Times over the last few years, minus COVID, of course. They have also marched in the Pride parade twice so far, and a staffed a booth at the event. If you google Washoe County Library and LGBTQ, the first hit is an online art exhibit called “Exploring the Queer Bible” which has been up for a long while.

Controversial much?

Did I ever mention that I love librarians because they are secret revolutionaries, waging quiet battles that we hardly even see.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com

Not only does the library celebrate Pride, but they keep a calendar to celebrate other affinity groups. They encourage the library branches to put up displays of books for the different affinity groups based on the calendar and the library system hosts a spot on KUNR to promote affinity books.

Debi said that they try to continue to bring on relevant collections for everyone, including more secular and conservative groups. She said that a major role of a library is constantly evaluating the library collection, and one of the impactful ways of doing that is looking at whether they provide a diverse experience in the collection.

Some of the most-requested services or asks of the library are connecting all kinds of people to jobs and other resources. 

Jamie said that the library employs about 130 people total for the library. Jamie and Debi answer to the Library Director, Jeff Scott, who answers to the Board of County Commissioners for the library system budget.  Mr. Scott also reports to the five Library Board of Trustees, who make the final decisions on how the library system is run.

Some of the important points that they stressed during the interview:

  • This is not your parent’s library. Shushing librarians are a relic of the past.
  • Libraries value anonymity. 
  • The library will not label books that are LGBTQ, to eliminate inadvertent notification to looky-Lous on what a reader is reading.
  • Libraries don’t divulge lending histories of their patrons, not even to parents of children.
  • The libraries have space available, free of charge, for organizations.
  • The library has a programming committee that can even sponsor some events.
  • The library has a The Quad Maker Space, where you can make different things using their tools and machines.
  • The library hosts summer lunch programs for kids who otherwise get them at school during the schoolyear.
  • They just got a grant for a book mobile. So they can start taking the library on the road to remote places and homebound seniors.
  • Director Scott has been very supportive of their work to move into, in particular, the LGBTQ space; he approved the library to march in the Pride parade, and supported Drag Queen Story Time, even in the face of national news and opposition.

Since Jamie is the marketing person, I asked if the library system had any marketing strategy. They informed me that they have a new strategic plan.  They are excited about it because it brings new energy into their workspace. 

They plan to focus more on service to seniors, which includes homebound delivery.  The library also focuses on improving their space, including renovating two branches recently.  They have always maintained a focus on early literacy.

The library system also maintains a quarterly magazine, The Explorer, which shows all the goings-on in all the branches in one glossy-covered place.  They print 3000 magazines per quarter and distribute them to all the branches. They also put out a weekly email newsletter and try to keep consistency in their brand.

Jamie said she hopes to reach out to Our Center (see my prior post on Our Center) and create some kind of a partnership with them.

When I asked Jamie and Debi what are their favorite events at the library, Debi said she loves new book Tuesday.  That is when they get a cart of fresh, new books to shelve and lend. She said they spend over $1 million per year in new materials.

Jaime said her favorite events are the story times in each branch.  She used to do them and was known for her puppetry when reading.  She loves the Drag Queen Story Time (of course), which includes her friend Miss Ginger Devine, aka Christopher Daniels of Good Luck MacBeth theater company. Jamie also loves another program the library hosts called Paws to Read, where the library brings in therapy dogs to sit with the children during story time.  Please enjoy some adorable pics from their website.

Credit: Paws for Love website

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Beauty Drag Queen Event History LGBTQ Organization Outdoors Place

Shhh! Librarians are getting loud at the Washoe County Library

I know I’m a little bit late to the table here. But….the Washoe County Library Downtown branch. Y’all.

I met with Jamie Hemingway, marketing library assistant, and Debi Stears, collection development manager, on Friday at the Downtown Branch of the Washoe County Library.

Right to Left: Jamie, Debi, Erica
Credit: Erica Pionke

Jamie has always been involved as an ally in the artsy LGBTQ world and Debi’s been a straight woman in a gay world of friends and roommates and bars since she was young.

Jamie jumped onto my radar during a LinkedIn search for LGBTQ in Reno. She is listed as hosting Drag Queen Story Time for the last few years. She organized it for the first time in 2019, around Pride. You may have read about it in national news that even the mayor of Sparks opposed. Though the turn-out was FANTASTIC.

In 2022, they plan to host Drag Queen Story Times on June 25th at the Downtown branch at 10:30 and 11:30am and on June 26th at the Sparks branch at 10:30 and 11:30am.

The Downtown branch space is AMAZING. It’s like walking into a rain forest. They have these floating pods with plants all around where you can sit under the natural ceiling lights. The entire roof is windows!

On the ground floor, two floors under the entrance, there is a pond with running water. The floor of the ground floor is littered with the leaves that have fallen off the plants over the night.

Credit: Erica Pionke

Jamie and Debi told me that when the library was being planned, they wanted to site it at Idlewild Park by the river. But because books and water don’t go so well together and rivers have been known to flood and destroy anything in their path, the move was denied. So whoever was running the show back then said, “Fine. If we can’t have the library in the park, we are going to have a park in the library.” Hence, the indoor rainforest.

Y’all, check this place out. It’s incredible. And check out my next post to learn more about all the awesome things that the library provides to the community.

The kiddo-ski area of the library. Credit: Erica Pionke.

Categories
Art Beauty Debbie Dino Valentino Drag King Drag Queen Health LGBTQ Mom Our Center Personal History Place UNR

My ‘About Me’ Video

My ‘About Me’ video just dropped an hour ago. If you want to blow your mind, check it out.

It’s 3 minutes and 30 seconds or so of amazingness. Shot mostly on location in my exotic and luxurious Sparks, Nevada office. I also got to spend a lovely day with Debbie last Saturday, looking for rainbow things and taking photos and video footage all over Reno. I learned how to splice together film and audio, how to make the sound loud and quiet and how to add text and credits to a video.

I have to give credit to Nick Gapp, Media Production Specialist, at Dynamic Media Lab at UNR, who helped me with my video when I had gotten a little too “extra” and got lost in the sequence. He also showed me the ins and outs of sound mixing.

There is a lot of footage that did not make it into the video. There’s even more that did, but was removed. We tried to go to places that I’d mentioned in my blog like Our Center and Reno Little Theater and things that I wrote about in my blog, like rollerblading, and people that I met, like the Twampson Sisters and Dino Valentino, and, of course, my Debbie.

Please take a look, like it on YouTube, and maybe I’ll make some more!

Categories
History LGBTQ Non-binary Organization Our Center Political Transgender UNR

UNR Queer Grad Collective

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/qgc_unr/

The Queer Grad Collective (QGC) is an officially-sanctioned Graduate Student Association (GSA) University of Reno (UNR) social club.  I met via Zoom this week with M (she/her/they/them) to learn more about them and the club’s origins.

M is a grad student pursuing a Masters in Fine Arts in creative writing, particularly in the genre of science fiction.  They hail from the fine state of Washington. Two years ago, M met Cas (she/her/he/him/they/them) on Lex, a text-centered social app that connects queer lovers and friends (I had to look that one up).  Cas, a Ph.D. candidate in the Environmental Science realm, had posted that there were no queer resources for graduate students at UNR. M and Cas met virtually and quickly came up with a constitution, found a network of students and faculty to support the group, and brought the school on board to found the QGC.

QGC’s mission is to make and create a safe community for queer graduates and people throughout the campus.  They have long-term plans to engage in activism, but for now, they are a social organization.

The group meets currently every other Friday from 11-noon.  They started two years ago in a virtual environment, then moved to in-person, then back on-line.  M said that they generally have about ten to fifteen people attend each meeting.

Right now, they are planning an end-of-semester afternoon picnic bash at Rancho San Rafael Regional Park in Reno sometime in the first two weeks of May. 

M said to join the mailing list or log into Discord (I haven’t figured either of these things out yet) to get the details on the event.

Being a social group, their primary objective is connecting people on campus. They have an Instagram @qgc_unr. And they maintain this elusive listserve that I have yet to find.

M said that their marketing strategy thus far has been

  • Put up flyers at UNR campus bulletin boards
  • Use the QLAB listserve
  • Bulk emails to UNR department
  • Maintain an Instagram presence
  • Set up tables at the GSA club fair and other events
  • Partner with other student organizations, both graduate and undergraduate

They have plans to connect with Our Center in the near future.

When I asked M what they are particularly proud of being involved with at QGC, they said that they are just proud that QGC still exists.  M said that it has been tough in the last two years under COVID-19 restrictions to meet people in a town new to them and get to know each other virtually.

Nonetheless, QGC has partnered with the Associated Students of the University of Nevada (ASUN), the student government of UNR, to host a Q&A for students. They’ve hosted a joint holiday party. They’ve partnered with the undergraduate Queer Student Union (QSU) on a gender-affirming closet exchange and plan to host a mentorship program with them next year. They’ve also partnered with QLAB; the local chapter of Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (oSTEM); and UNR Pride.

When I asked about plans for the future, M said they had no hard plans right now because of the lingering uncertainty of COVID.  M did tell me about their undergraduate queer center in Washington, which had its own dedicated space, held book clubs, support groups, and bitch and stitches. Though M didn’t specifically say that was the goal, we did discuss how it would be great to have a place where all the LGBTQ organizations could meet and hold space.

Like me, M is excited to attend their first Pride in Nevada and see how the Biggest Little City does it.  When I asked what is one of M’s favorite queer spaces or events in Reno, they told me the Holland Project. I had never heard about it before; M says it’s an all-ages venue with a really cool art space and art classes.  M looks forward to going to a show there soon.

When I asked M what they want people to know about QGC, they said they want people to know that QGC is working to foster the first explicit community on the UNR campus for queer graduate students.  QGC is achieving this through community building activities and hopes to continue in the future with social activism and engagement.

Interview with M Sawan, Co-Founder
M Sawan, Interviewee. Credit: LinkedIn
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Health History LGBTQ Non-binary Organization Political Transgender

Transgender Allies Group

Credit: TAG website

The Transgender Allies Group (TAG) is an advocacy group for transgender people in Nevada. They go to the Nevada state legislature and lobby to have bills passed and sometimes terminated.

TAG has been around since 2010. A bathroom bill brought TAG into existence. At the time, Nevada was considered one of the lowest states for LGBTQ welcomeness. As a result of massive legislation in this state over the years, Nevada, in 2020, was ranked number ONE by USA Today as the most LGBTQ-friendly state in the nation. The rankings looked at legislation, number of hate crimes, and LGBTQ population per state.

Some TAG wins here in our good ‘ole Nevada:

  • One of the easiest states to get ones birth certificate changed
  • It is very easy to change ones’ gender marker
  • No longer have to publish your name in the newspaper when you do a name change
  • No longer have to prove to the DMV that a 3rd party verifies who you are
  • One of the few states that has an X gender on drivers’ licenses

When I spoke with Sherrie Scaffidi, the president of TAG (see here and here for more on Sherrie) she said one of the reasons they have been so successful is that TAG has good rapport with the Nevada State Senators.  Nevada has four open LGBTQ legislators. Sherrie said it has been easy to get them on board with getting various bills sponsored, supported, or killed.

The TAG board is currently comprised of two transgender women, two transgender men, and one cis gay man.  These folks are the president, secretary, treasurer, and two directors.

The meetings are held via Zoom on the fourth Thursday of every month in conjunction with Northern Nevada’s Carson City chapter of PFLAG, for which Sherrie is also the president. For anyone who is not familiar with PFLAG, they are the first and largest organization for LGBTQ people, their parents and families, and allies.

TAG has about 12 active members, but Sherrie knows that they touch the lives of many, many more in Nevada. It’s unknown exactly how many people, though, because TAG does not maintain a listserve in order to preserve anonymity of those seeking assistance.  TAG often deals with people who are not ready to come out.  Sherrie estimates they affect 50 to 100 people personally and one-on-one per year in helping with transitioning legal tasks like name changes.  

When a bill gets passed specific to the transgender community, TAG doesn’t know how exactly many people they are going to touch. Nevada is estimated to have approximately 12,600 transgender people in 2022.

They have a great name-change roadmap and forms on their website and a ton of resources, but the website is definitely out of date, so I know some of it is not useful any more.

They need to update their woefully out-of-date website and develop a business presence on LinkedIn. They do have a twitter @TAGNevada which is very active, and I applaud that.

TAG needs to work on their marketing and outreach. Because they don’t collect listserves, they don’t have much of an outreach strategy. Mostly, it’s just Sherrie putting her personal contact information out everywhere she can. They get some contacts through PFLAG.

Although not a social group, TAG hosts a Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Church in Reno every November.

TAG’s most current issue is advocating for the LGBTQ community in the Nevada prison system.  Transgender inmates are being put in the wrong gender population.  A transgender woman’s legal documents may confirm that she is female, but because she has male genitalia, she is often placed with the men’s population.  These inmates are often denied their hormones.  TAG is bringing new legislation in the latest session to address these injustices.

Sherrie wants you to know that TAG can help with anything having to do with gender transitioning.  And if you show them something they have never seen before and don’t have an answer to, they want to help you figure it out.

Sherrie helped me in 2021 to develop a powerpoint presentation for my organization on terminology and etiquette related to transitioning and transgender employees.

Follow them on twitter. Follow me on twitter.

Credit: TAG Website. Signing of Senate Bill 201, protecting LGBTQ youth from dangerous “conversion therapy.” From left to right: Eliza Cafferata (Nevada Advocates for Planned Parenthood), Sherrie Scaffidi (TAG), Tick Segerblom (Senator), Governor Brian Sandoval, Holly Welborn (ACLU-NV), Tyrone Thompson (Assemblyman), David Parks (Senator, Sponsor), Brooke Maylath (TAG), Stacey Shinn (PLAN), Brad Combs (Intern), Ashley Clift-Jennings (TAG).
Categories
Health LGBTQ Non-binary Organization Outdoors Place Sports

Mesa Rim Climbing Gym is not Super Gay. But they are Gay-Friendly.

Credit: https://mesarim.com/reno/#

Nothing really gay happened while I was at Mesa Rim Climbing Center tonight.

I called for a climbing partner and was met by Samuel, a tall climber who designated himself bi when I asked.

They fly a Gay Pride flag from the rafters, next to the American and Nevada state flags. Their binary bathrooms signs also announce that they are allow non-binary users.

A lot of the young folks could have been gay or trans or just needed haircuts. They kept a stash of LaCroix under the stairs. Just a strong low-key gay-friendly vibe. But nothing super-gay.

I asked the front desk if there was anything super-gay to know about the place or any big gay events they may hold periodically and they looked confused. But they were very nice.

It’s a great center. Very clean, which is difficult with all that chalk and sweat and young people who use their gear outdoors a lot.

They have a super-dope virtual tour of the location you can check out on their website.

Some of the location highlights include:

  • top-rope and lead belay
  • bouldering for days
  • a yoga studio
  • cardio equipment
  • a full set of weightlifting and cross-training equipment
  • hang-boards on hang-boards on hang-boards
  • a snack section
  • a gear and merch section
  • I think I saw a birthday room
  • an upstairs lounge (no nasty climber couches, but tables and stuff)
  • group and one-on-one climbing classes
  • workshops
  • team climbing
  • a rooftop deck with grill
  • co-ed sauna and binary locker rooms that include non-binary
  • They also have kids stuff, for the gays with shorties

The website shows that Mesa Rim operates 6 locations here, in California and they are opening one of them in Texas this fall. They say their “… founders dreamed of creating an inclusive space where people of all walks of life and abilities could venture out of their comfort zones in pursuit of a remarkable movement experience.” Righteous.

Check out the vid I made tonight.

Credit: Erica Pionke

Categories
Health LGBTQ Organization Personal History Political Transgender UNR

I Needed to Highlight Sherrie Scaffidi for Two Days

This is the second installment of my interview with Ms. Sherrie Scafidi, the president of the Transgender Allies Group, or TAG. TAG is mostly a lobbying organization for transgender rights, but they provide extensive resources for those who are seeking legal gender identity changes, including a flow chart on how to do it.

Please go back and read the short article from yesterday to learn about her story coming out as a transgender woman.

She also helps those not in the community by educating, speaking, and acting as a “standardized patient,” which is someone who plays the part of the patient at a medical school and guides the med student or nurse practitioner in the proper language and treatment of a transgender person. There is a great article from my very own UNR where Sherrie is quoted and photographed.

Credit: Nevada Today, UNR publication

What are some of the things that you have done with TAG that you are particularly proud of?

2 biggest

  1. A transgender person no longer has to publish their name change in the newspaper. When she changed her name in January 2017, it had to be listed in the newspaper. The law which changed that was passed in the 2017 legislative session one month later, in February.
  2. A transgender person no longer has to prove by a third party to the DMV that they are who they say they are. She said that when she changed her driver’s license, she had to get a third-party doctor to verify who she was. Now, Nevada is one of the few states that has an X gender and no verification now needed.

Sherrie also works full-time currently and is the president of PFLAG, the first and largest organization for LGBTQ+ people, their parents and families, and allies. She also has her own consulting business where she gets paid to educate and speak. She works with local security firms to educate their guards on the laws surrounding gender and bathroom use in Nevada.

In what little free time I can’t imagine she has much of, she loves to cook. She said that she spends all her money on shoes, cooking stuff, and model railroading. She also still has all the equipment from when she had worked as a gunsmith.

Sherrie identifies as a lesbian.  She laments that the local lesbian community is not as welcoming to her as a transgender woman as she wishes they were. As a member of that community, I was saddened by that statement but I also recognize that, though a generalization, my experience is similar. I believe it may be due to a lack of understanding (and maybe even empathy?).

Sherrie wants people to know that if they are transgender, they can help out the community by being open and visible if they are brave enough.  She would love to start back up her half-hour radio show about LGBTQ individuals that was cut short by COVID-19. She sees the value in growing a national audience for something like that.

Please check out the TAG website and read more about Sherrie’s work with the UNR med school.

2017 signing of Nevada Senate Bill 201 protecting LGBTQ youth from “conversion therapy”. Sherrie is second to left. Credit: http://www.transgenderalliesgroup.org/
Categories
Coming Out Story LGBTQ Organization Political Transgender

Sherrie Scaffidi, President of the Transgender Allies Group (TAG)

Credit: Ballotpedia.org

When I logged into Zoom yesterday, I was faced with a woman with perfectly coiffed hair, nails with no chips in them and all done up in makeup. I was wearing pants and a bra and I felt like I was winning.

This was the second time I had the opportunity to talk to Ms. Sherrie Scaffidi, the president of the Transgender Allies Group, or TAG. TAG is mostly a lobbying organization for transgender rights, but they provide extensive resources for those who are seeking legal gender identity changes, including a flow chart on how to do it.

She’s not only a customer, but she’s one of their biggest clients. Not really—that’s just a goofy old saying from a commercial in the 80’s.

But she has had to walk through many of the scary legal transitioning experiences and now helps transgender Nevadans gain easier access. She said that she tried to sell her house in Fernley after transitioning, which was the impetus for developing a form to help others to sell their houses after their names are legally changed.

As someone who was assigned male at birth, she play-acted her life as a man for decades, through a 43-year marriage that ended when her wife passed away in 2012 from cancer. She still keeps close with her three kids who are all adults themselves now. She said her kids still call her Dad and Pop.

Sherrie explained that her sister asked her how she learned to walk after transitioning with such a feminine sway, Sherrie explained that she actually had to learn how to walk like a man throughout her life. She said she’s felt different since she was 8 years old.

Sherrie is also a military Veteran and an advocate for LGBTQ Veterans in Nevada. She’s worked with the local VA, and she estimates that there are 2,000 transgender Vets living in Nevada today.

In 2013, when she started transitioning, she had a lot of fear about coming out as a woman. Now, she hands out her personal information to anyone who will take it so that she can make connections and help others in the transgender community.

Please check back in tomorrow, where I will talk some more about Sherrie and her great work in Northern Nevada.

Categories
Event LGBTQ Organization Place UNR

University of Nevada Faculty and Staff Queer and LGBT Advocacy Board (QLAB)

Interview with Erin Edgington, Ph.D.

I couldn’t have a queer-in-Reno brand, originating out of my University of Nevada, Reno personal branding class taught by Angela Rudolph without discussing the resources for the LGBTQ community on the UNR campus.

This week, I had the opportunity to talk to Erin Edgington, Ph.D., and chair-elect of QLAB, the Queer and LGBT Advocacy Board. She is one of the 6 chairs of QLAB.

According to the organization’s website, QLAB is comprised of out and allied faculty and staff and it makes ongoing assessment of attitudes and conditions throughout the University regarding gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans and Queer persons and issues.

Credit: UNR

Erin explained that QLAB started only just a few years ago as a task force. One of their primary objectives was to make sure that bathrooms were available for transgender people on campus.

QLAB is mostly for staff and faculty. They do liaise with the students organizations. Many of the members act as faculty advisors for the student organizations.

They hold monthly meetings (or so) while in class and hold social events as well. Erin sees their main purpose is for advocacy and social events. They do perform many valuable services at UNR. They have an active core group of 8-10 UNR faculty and staff memebers, and then another few dozen who attend their events throughout the year.

The main service of QLAB is safe zone and allyship trainings.  They have ten to twenty requests for training every semester. Many trainings had been over Zoom in the last two years, which were successful with some adjustments.

QLAB maintains a few subcommittees, including one devoted to helping with these trainings. They also have a subcommittee on communication, which helps to provide information about the organization and events and their UNR LGBTQIA+ Resource Guide.

QLAB has traditionally participated in the Unity Graduation ceremony, including the Lavender Graduation. They hosted a DJ on screen this past year for the event on Zoom. QLAB helps the Associated Student Union of Nevada, or ASUN through donations and time.  The organization contributes and shows up where it can and also tries to hold some of its own events. QLAB tries to amplify the voices of the LGBTQ students at UNR.

Erin said that one of the things she wants people to know about QLAB is that they are here. She said that affinity groups like QLAB are not a part of the faculty onboarding process, and most new faculty and staff don’t know about QLAB until they receive a survey at the end of the year. She also wants people to know that, though QLAB is centered at UNR, they are not a student group.

Another important service piece that QLAB provides is the UNR LGBTQIA+ Resource Guide. QLAB works hard to keep the guide current. They saw a need with a fragmented Northern Nevada LGBT community. They saw other affinity groups compiling similar resource packages and decided to put one together themselves.

When I asked Erin what event or part of QLAB she was most proud of, she told me about a career panel that QLAB held with Edible, the local food magazine. The speakers talked about their professions and it was an opportunity for 50 students or so to learn about different careers. It also fit the University’s career-readiness objectives. 

As I delve more into the student resources at UNR for the LGBTQ community, I look forward to crossing paths with QLAB. If you know someone who might be interested, please forward the Resource Guide to them. And please take a look at it. It has a lot of really great information.

Erin Edgington. Credit: UNR.edu faculty website