The LGBTQ+ Resource Center serves as a hub for many of the LGBTQ+ initiatives on campus with a priority to centering QTPOC (Queer and Trans People of Color) students. Our space provides students with a connecting point for LGBTQ+ people and programming. Hundreds of students study, eat their lunch, host student organization meetings, and socialize here—it is their home away from home!
The LGBTQ+ Resource Center works to build, sustain, and strengthen a safe, inclusive, and open environment for students, faculty, staff, appointed professionals, alumni, parents, and guests of all gender and sexual identities. The LGBTQ+ RC focuses on building an anti-colonial, anti-racist space and shaping programs that center students the most oppressed, working to meet their physical, educational, and emotional needs.
How we got here
To better serve students who identify as LGBTQ+, The University of Arizona established the Office of LGBTQ Affairs in 2007. This decision was brought about after nearly twenty years of advocacy by LGBTQ+ students, faculty, and staff. They devoted hour-upon-hour to promote equity in University policies and practices. They worked equally as tirelessly to sponsor educational opportunities to build an inclusive campus climate for LGBTQ+ populations.
In recognition of the significant needs of this marginalized community, the President’s LGBT Advisory Council recommended that President Shelton hire a Director of LGBTQ Affairs, which he did in 2007. The council also recognized that to achieve our goal of becoming a top ten public research institutions, we need to be able to retain world-class faculty and staff, and therefore we must be inclusive of LGBTQ+ colleagues.
