Over the past year at Dickinson, several new LGBTQ+ affinity groups and clubs have been established by the LGBTQ+ Center, including Lesbian Voices, Zero Feet Away, the Queer & Trans People of Color Student Group (QTPOC) and the Aro-Ace Alliance Club, acting as discussion groups for people across the LGBTQ+ spectrum. These affinity groups are established based on student interest and through discussions with the director of the LGBTQ+ Center, Tommy Lee. The new lineup is joined by previous programming, such as Dinealogues.
Getting an LGBTQ+ group started at Dickinson is relatively easy. Tommy Lee explained, it is primarily about having a student interested in running a group and having students interested in participating in the group, allowing the groups on campus to arise and dissolve naturally based on this level of interest. Lee works with the students leading the groups to ensure that everything is running efficiently, and Landis House provides a space, food and funding for the groups to operate. In discussing the importance of these groups, Lee said that “it creates opportunities for shared ownership of our work with people from these communities.”
Lesbian Voices is a group that was cofounded by Nina Grafton ’26 and Ashley Harbert ’26, and it was established at the beginning of the Fall 2023 semester through the collaboration of the LGBTQ+ Center and the Women’s & Gender Resource Center. Grafton said the purpose of Lesbian Voices is to give “a confidential space for lesbian students, as well as questioning students, to gather and discuss aspects of our identity, what it’s like being a lesbian in Dickinson’s campus [and] in the broader world, but also to just connect with each other and form a community.” Information about Lesbian Voices can be found on their Instagram (@lesbianvoicesdson).
Zero Feet Away is an anonymous discussion group founded by Matthew Harrington ’25 that was established at the beginning of the Fall 2024 semester, acting as an inclusive space for gay and bisexual men, as well as other queer, gender-nonconforming students. Harrington explained that he wanted to start this group because it is difficult to meet gay men in college without using dating apps, which are not usually conducive to making friends, and said that he “wanted this to be an opportunity for gay students on campus to interact more and get to know one another.” Zero Feet Away meetings typically include laidback discussions with food and drinks provided. Any questions about Zero Feet Away can be directed to Harrington’s Dickinson email address ([email protected]).
The QTPOC was conceptualized by Ella Layton ’26 and was established at the beginning of the Fall 2024 semester through the collaboration of the LGBTQ+ Center and the Popel Shaw Center. This group is led by Lola Babich ’25 and Alyssa Santiago ’26 as a space for queer students of color to have a space that is not usually present in other LGBTQ+ groups at a predominantly white institution (PWI). So far, QTPOC meetings have been facilitated discussions, with one meeting being related to a film shown about Marsha P. Johnson. Santiago, who also helps run Lesbian Voices, explained the importance of QTPOC, saying that “it’s allowing other people to see the opportunities that are available, and how to make Dickinson theirs when you struggle as a marginalized community.”
The Aro-Ace Alliance Club was established by Jillian Bourret ’26 in the Spring 2024 semester as a space for people who are either on the Aro/Ace spectrum or are questioning to get to know each other. The Aro-Ace Alliance differs from other LGBTQ+ groups on campus because, at the beginning of the Fall 2024 semester, it became an official club, meaning that they can get funding from Student Senate and are not directly tied to the LGBTQ+ Center. Bourret expressed an interest to start this club due to the lack of aro ace representation in LGBTQ+ groups on campus, especially with the dissolution of the Queer Student Union, and said that “with the current times, it’s just really important for queer people to just kind of stick together.”
Further information on all these groups can be found on Instagram (@dsonlgbtq) and on the Dickinson events calendar.
