Gender and Sexuality Center celebrates grand opening

The Gender and Sexuality Center (GSC) hosted students, faculty and staff from across campus as it celebrated its grand opening and one-year anniversary on Wednesday, Oct. 14.
 
The GSC, which occupies a permanent space next to the Rape Crisis Center on the upper level of the Usdan Student Center, is a center that serves as a hub for queer campus life and provides a space for queer students and allies to get support, find community and get educated on LGBQT issues and identity.
 
"This space has been a place students can go to hopefully not feel judged or feel the pressures of systemic oppression,” said Felix Tunador, the program coordinator for sexuality and gender diversity. “My hope is that it’s a space of learning and growing, so that the whole community gets involved and on board with learning about, respecting and accepting people of diverse genders and sexualities.”
 
The GSC, which is part of the Intercultural Center, features a library filled with LGBTQ literature which students can checkout as well. When open, either Tunador, whose office is located in the center, or one of the center’s four student administrative assistants will be present to attend to visitors.
 
Molly Gimbel ’16 is one of the administrative assistants and was part of a student task force that asked the university to create the GSC. The students wanted a unique space that would allow the GSC to properly serve the LGBTQ community, as well as a full-time director. Though Gimbel and their fellow administrative assistants had the opportunity to help create the space, they were all abroad when the center formally opened. When they returned from their travels overseas, they were awe-struck by the remodeled space.
 
“When the center opened, I cried happy tears of joy,” Molly Gimbel ’16, who is from Boonton Township, New Jersey and double-majors in business and women, gender and sexuality studies. “I was so happy, especially with the transformation this place has gone through. There’s life and it’s filled with people—the space is breathed in. It’s so amazing to see something so special and important for the Brandeis community.”
 
Sheryl Sousa ’90, senior associate vice president for student affairs, echoed Gimbel’s praise of the newly opened center.
 
"A little over a year and a half ago, our students presented a thoughtful proposal for a Gender and Sexuality Center on campus and I'm so happy that we were able to make it a reality," Sousa said.