CU Denver Genders & Sexualities Alliance

Working to serve the needs of Auraria’s LGBTQ+ community

The LGBTQ+ community is uniquely diverse which leads to a culture filled with a wide array of ideas, passions, interests, and needs. Those of us who organize and act within this community, have an obligation to put on events that will reach out to the many corners of our community as possible.

The CU Denver Genders & Sexualities Alliance (GSA) is a student-run organization working to serve the needs and interests of our LGBTQ+ community on the Auraria Campus. Student organizations on this commuter campus all face the same challenge in engaging students: convincing people to stay on campus later than they usually would for a meeting or an event or convinving them to come back when they’ve already left for the day.

Our club has been successful in engaging our community by building up a broad network of events and programs over these past few years.

We host guest speakers on or off campus, hold discussions about relevant topics in our community, and sometimes we just play games. Regardless, our community knows that we’ll always be there at the same time in the same place, no matter what. Consistent, dependable meetings are important, but our mission is to build a larger community network, so opportunities to connect must go far beyond that meeting space.

We also organize a series of informal meet-ups off campus, usually on a Thursday or a Friday. We’ve been to a charity walk at Coors Field, a farmers’ market, hosted movie and game nights, and spent evenings at different member-suggested spots around the city.

Additionally, we host an event every November promoting the awareness and prevention of suicide in our community called Queer Lives. In the form of a huge celebration of the lives and art of our community, we provide a free catered dinner and a program that includes drag performances, live music, poetry, and a visual art show, all spotlighting current and former Auraria community members. Seeing as the core of the event is suicide prevention and awareness, it also features a large resource fair to connect community members with on- and off-campus resources.

Our voices, our lives, and our community are so often pushed aside or kept quiet, and GSA is working to normalize speaking up, speaking out, and living unapologetically. We want to elevate the voices of our community, amplify our lives and art, and provide opportunities to support and validate each other and ourselves. If we’ve done our job, everyone on campus will know we’re here, we’re queer, and we’re not going anywhere.

Study Hour every Monday at 5 p.m. at the LGBTQ+ Student Resource Center’s office located Tivoli Room #213

Senate Meetings every Tuesday at 5 p.m. located Tivoli Senate Chamber Room #329

Queer Lives November 14 at 5 p.m. located at Tivoli Turnhalle