Upcoming Events
- Nov 14 Lecture: Family Acceptance & Rejection of LGBTQ+ Youth in a Nat'l U.S. Sample1:00pm
- Nov 14 CANCELLED: Legally Trans6:00pm
- Nov 15 Lecture: Constellations of Queer History in NYC, 1983-200812:30pm
- Nov 15 Queer Collective Meeting7:00pm
- Nov 16 HPV Vaccination Clinic at SHS1:00pm
- Nov 21 Closed for Thanksgiving12:00am
Lecture: Family Acceptance & Rejection of LGBTQ+ Youth in a Nat'l U.S. Sample
Wednesday, November 14th, 2018
01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Storrs CampusFamily Studies Building, Seminar Room 111
11/14 Lecture Series: Rohner Center (Dr. Ryan Watson)
Rohner Center for the Study of Interpersonal Acceptance and Rejection invites you to attend the November 2018 presentation by Dr. Ryan Watson on "Family Acceptance and Rejection of LGBTQ+ Youth in a National U.S. Sample"
Location: Seminar Room 111, Family Studies Building (UConn, Storrs campus)
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
For more information, contact: Dr. Ron Rohner at r.rohner@uconn.edu
Contact Information: r.rohner@uconn.edu
MoreCANCELLED: Legally Trans
Wednesday, November 14th, 2018
06:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Storrs CampusRainbow Center Program Room (SU 403)
Unfortunately this event has been cancelled due to the unavailability of the speaker. Please look for a rescheduled date in the Spring Semester.
Legally Trans is part of an annual educational event held at the Rainbow Center to inform the community on the process of legally transitioning. Henry Thomas will be joining us from GLAD to answer all of your questions about changing your name, gender markers, and more! Refreshments will be served.
Contact Information: UConn Rainbow Center
MoreLecture: Constellations of Queer History in NYC, 1983-2008
Thursday, November 15th, 2018
12:30 PM - 01:45 PM
Storrs CampusRainbow Center; Student Union 403
The Out to Lunch Gender, Sexuality, and Community is a weekly academic lecture and discussion series with guest scholars and community activists from various disciplines examining a variety of topics related to gender identity, gender expression, and sexuality. Each semester offers a broad sampling of the areas.
Today's lecture is entitled, "Constellations of Queer History in New York City, 1983-2008" and it will be presented by Jack Gieseking (he/him/his).
Synopsis: In The Practice of Everyday Life, de Certeau writes that âWhat the map cuts up, the story cuts across.â But what if the everyday stories you seek are already cut up by centuries of structural inequality and oppression, such as those of lesbians and queer women? Further, does ânot tinyâ data ever qualify as big enough when marginalized people do not have the resources to produce, self-categorize, analyze, store, or map âbig dataâ? In this talk, I explore what can be illuminated in the study of queer lives and spaces by bringing together the isolated but overlapping stories of lesbians and queer women in maps, from the hand-drawn to the most technologically advanced and interactive. Drawing upon qualitative and quantitative work on lesbiansâ and queer womenâs spaces and economies in New York City from 1983 to 2008âincluding multi-generational focus groups and mental maps, archival research, and GISâI pat special attention to how the size of data matters to lesbians in the production of their historical geographies. Most data collected about lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, and queer (LGBTQ) people throughout history has only been used to pathologize and stigmatize. Gathered at the Lesbian Herstory Archives, I draw on the Archiveâs LGBTQ organizing history dataset, the largest dataset known to exist on LGBTQ activist history, as well as the resulting data visualizations. I examine the place of lesbians and queer women in the geospatial big data debates even through the production of a not âbigâ enough dataset. I suggest that societyâs obsession with big data further oppresses the marginalized by creating a false norm to which they are never able to measure up. Drawing upon a queer feminist and critical geographic perspective, I argue that a wide range of imbricated scales of data exist which upend the big-small data binary.
Biography: Professor Gieseking (pronouns: he/him/his) works at the intersections of critical urban and digital geographies, and feminist and queer theory. His research is engaged in research on co-productions of space and identity in digital and material environments, with a focus on sexual and gender identities. He pays special attention to how such productions support or inhibit social, spatial, and economic justice, as well as how research can be made public and accessible to those who need it most. Giesekingâs first book examined the production of lesbian and queer spaces in New York City as they relate to capital around the turn
Contact Information: rainbowcenter@uconn.edu
MoreQueer Collective Meeting
Thursday, November 15th, 2018
07:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Storrs CampusRainbow Center program room
The Queer Collective is a student organization with the purpose of providing a safe and open space for discussion and expression of the diverse identities of the UConn LGBTQ+ community via student-run discussion groups, events, and more. Join us as we work this semester to get our organization started and plan for next semester.
Contact Information: rainbowcenter@uconn.edu
MoreHPV Vaccination Clinic at SHS
Friday, November 16th, 2018
01:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Storrs CampusStudent Health Services
Please bring your student ID and insurance card.
Be sure to bring your medical insurance card for billing purposes. Contact your insurance company for coverage questions.
Contact Information: shs@uconn.edu
MoreClosed for Thanksgiving
Wednesday, November 21st, 2018
12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Storrs CampusRainbow Center
The Rainbow Center will be closed to the public today.
Contact Information: rainbowcenter@uconn.edu
MoreA Message from the Rainbow Center
Hello LGBTQIA+ and Allied Community!
Everyone is welcome at the Rainbow Center. We pride ourselves on a family-like environment with academic and social opportunities. We have been serving UConn's diverse communities of gender identities, gender expressions, and sexualities since 1998. The fun and amazing staff provides resources and services to the wider campus community of students, faculty, staff, and local residents. We are especially excited to introduce our new Director, Kelsey O'Neil (they/them/theirs). To read Kelsey's bio, please check out our Meet the Staff page.
This is the Rainbow Center's 20th Anniversary. Update your contact information with the Foundation to recieve updates about events we are planning to celebrate. Since our founding, the Rainbow Center has been named one of the best 100 gay-friendly campuses in the country, and received a 4.5 out of 5 rating on the Campus Pride Index Report. We'd love for you to join us at a Husky Ally Safe Zone training, Out to Lunch Lecture, or upcoming event to celebrate.
Contact Us
| Phone: | 860-486-5821 |
|---|---|
| E-mail: | rainbowcenter@uconn.edu |
| Address: | 2110 Hillside Road, Unit 3096 Student Union 403 Storrs, CT 06269 |
Follow Us
Fall 2018 Hours
Monday-Friday: 9am-8pm (closed Fridays between 3pm and 5pm)
Saturday-Sunday: Closed
Rainbow Center News
World AIDS Day Documentary Viewing
By: Anna Martineau
World AIDS Day 2018 will be on Saturday, December 1st. Started in 1988 as the first ever global health day, World AIDS Day brings organizations and people around the world together in the fight to end HIV/AIDS and promote awareness of the diseases. Although the height of the crisis was during the 1980s, there are still 36.7 million people who are living with HIV/AIDS today. It is especially important to recognize how the LGBTQ community has been affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, as well as the major role their activism has played in dispelling stigma, educating their communities, and fighting for the research and resources to improve the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS.
The Rainbow Center will be collaborating with Partners in Health Engage on Thursday, December 6th, from 5-6:30pm in the Rainbow Center to watch We Were Here, a documentary highlighting personal stories from people who lived through the height of the AIDS epidemic. Partners in Health Engage will discuss the work that their organization has done to end HIV/AIDS around the world, and all students are invited to participate in discussion about how we can all continue the fight to end AIDS.
10/24/18 Rainbow Center Response to Federal Policy Changes
This week, there have been several reports and statements about how the federal government is reconsidering the way that gender is defined in law, policy, and governance. There is a possibility that gender may be redefined as “biological,” “immutable” and “determined by genitalia at birth.”
This news threatens the transgender and intersex communities here at UConn and nationwide. The Rainbow Center recognizes that this change in definition has not yet happened, and no full definition has been made final, but we are also aware that a change like this could have immediate and devastating effects, were it to move forward.
Redefining gender in this way is an attempt to weaken and/or eliminate many legal protections and rights granted to both the transgender and intersex communities. In particular, this policy change would likely have a major impact on the way that Title IX has been interpreted and enacted nationally.
The Rainbow Center wishes to highlight the state-level protections that exist here in Connecticut. The Connecticut State Department of Education’s 2017 “Guidance on Civil Rights Protections and Supports for Transgender Students” is a good point of reference for statewide legal protections in academic settings. While these statewide protections are helpful for those who live and work locally, we also recognize that national protections are of critical importance.
We invite any UConn community members who wish to discuss this policy or the impact it has had on them to join us in the center or reach out to rainbowcenter@uconn.edu.
The Rainbow Center and the Office for Diversity and Inclusion are committed to supporting our transgender and intersex UConn community members, and we will remain steadfast in our advocacy and actions.