Finding someone to look up to is one of the biggest factors that helps drive an individual to succeed in their goals. This is because it helps to show an individual that their hopes and dreams are reachable and possible to succeed. Hence the creation of the Queer Voices Coalition this school year.
“Do you know any non-binary queer disabled people in sports?”
This question was posed by the founder and president of Queer Voices Collation, Oliver Lois Economidis. Economidis is a senior communication studies major with a sports media certificate. Them and their executive board have a mission to give a safe space for queer individuals at Temple University. The club’s first focus was to give a voice to queer individuals in the Klein College due to the stereotype that LGBTQIA+ individuals do not exist in some professions.
This is especially important because many people, when going into college, do not have the ability to see someone who is not following the normal path that is usually attributed to individuals in the community. Many times there are not enough examples of people who do take the alternate path. However, it allows for an opportunity for these individuals to be heard and seen in their community with the creation of the Queer Voices Coalition.
“Not only do they have a community at Temple in their field, but they also have a community within the city of Philadelphia,” Economidis said. “We are trying and working within the city to show people the activism we can do within the community and unite people at Temple, connect them to people in Philly.”
Community outreach is one of the focal points that both Economidis and Vice President Ariana Droz discussed as the future of the club. Droz, a senior audio and live entertainment major and communications minor, helps to facilitate these ideas and work together to help them for the future of the club to come to life.
In the future, Droz and Economidis have hopes to host field trips to the Gaybourhood and Fishtown to help connect the queer community at Temple to a larger community, which gives a place for college students to exist and be heard in the next chapter of their life after graduation.
“I think another big part of it is that there are a lot of queer places in Temple, but I don’t think that there’s anyone that’s quite like us,” Economidis said.
This is because with the creation of this club, it will help strengthen the bonds not just in the Temple community but also other queer organizations that surround the campus. Because of how new the club is, they are currently working on building the community and giving educational opportunities to be engaged with each other.
Looking into the future for the coalition, Droz and Economidis hope to allow for the field trips that they dream of, holding bake sales to reach out to the public, hosting a panel that highlights the queer community especially in unlikely majors, and to continue to support students in their journey to becoming themselves in the world. There is a lot of work to do still to help reach this group’s full potential, but the time and dedication of the mission will help get to their goal.