Queer Resource Room

I like the idea of having a queer resource room on campus. You know, a place where gay students can rent gay movies, read gay books, network with gay profs and talk about gay things with other gays. But I can't help but notice how insanely unpopular these places are. Today I went to the UW Queer Resource Room and there were 3 people there, all of whom were staff. I sat down on a chair and some lady looked up from the book she was reading. "Oh hi there!" she said, "I didn't see ya other there!" "Well, here I am, a gay, in your presence," I said. I felt like I should have a problem to talk about, but I didn't. "Jus' lookin around!" There were a few local gay publications on the coffee table ('mo, SGN, the GSBA guide for people who only want their teeth cleaned by a gay dude). There was absolutely nothing to say to these people. It was like, expected, for me to have some sort of issue to work out. Like, I felt like I should have started complaining about coming out to mah mom, and how there were no queer studies classes at UW, and then the two ladies would have nodded their heads and said "oh man, gosh, yeah, hard," and they would have felt really good about themselves but I would have felt absolutely nothing. So, some time passed, and I thought, oh hell, I'll just give some criticisms of the university because I have nothing else to do and at least they'll listen to me, so I said, "Yeah, being gay is rough. hard. There are no real good queer studies classes here, and CHID is just a bunch of people calling each other racist. I hate being singled out patronizingly for being gay and then being used as a token, and I understand why my generation is totally apathetic about gay activism. Why should we care?" The ladies just sort of looked stunned. I felt like I had shat all over their faces. "Well, you know, Queer Studies is an up and coming minor here at UW," one of the ladies said to me. "That's good," I responded. "But these things take a while." "Yeah." "Hard." "Tough." Then I thought about how I wished I was somewhere else. Then I left.

It's not that I don't think there should be places where gays can go and talk about their problems, I just think the gay resource room could be, I dunno, a bit "hipper"? It felt so clinical there. There were all these posters about AIDS and HOMOPHOBIA and TRANS PHOBIA, where there could have been art or something else that didn't make me feel like I was in a social worker's office. If you want to create a relaxed vibe, don't make gay students feel like they should all be collectively outraged constantly by the invisible web of white male heterosexist patriarchy. The Queer Resource Room should look like "The Cock" in New York, or the late great "Pony" on Pine, staffed with indie arts fags. This is Seattle, not Albuquerque, can't we have a bit of playful fun with the a gay resource room in the center of one of the gayer cities in the country? If you want activism, queer theory, Tony Kushner and all that to be hip again, start with your wall art.