This past Friday, Sonoma State University’s Queer Student Alliance (QSA) hosted Queer Prom 2022. This was a night designed for fostering community among queer students, complete with food, dancing and wearing their own unique attire. Students and their guests gathered together in the Russian River Valley room from 7-10 p.m. to indulge in a special evening of celebrating themselves and their community, completely free of judgment.
Queer Prom aimed to create a welcoming environment for everyone in attendance. On Sonoma State’s website, The QSA states that, “our club is a safe place for queer students to find support from each other at the university. As a club, we promote acceptance throughout Sonoma State via events focused around the LGBTQ+ community.”
An anonymous student shared their experience at Queer Prom, stating that, “in highschool I was scared to attend prom because of who I wanted to bring as my date. I was excited to be able to attend a prom where I can just be myself, and the QSA has been a great outlet for me in college.”
It is so imperative that queer students have a place where they can be themselves and that is exactly what QSA aimed to provide. A night like Queer Prom helps to avoid all of the uncomfortable interactions that can occur at a high school prom made for heteronormative people. Queer students constantly have to worry if someone will make a rude comment about the way they choose to dress, who they bring as a date or if someone is ultimately not going to respect them as a person.
The event was not designed just for QSA club members, as all members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies were encouraged to attend. The club presidents and event organizers were thrilled about the turnout of the event. Ares Marx, the president of QSA, stated that “I think the event went really well and we had way more people come than we expected. We planned for a maximum of 45 people, and the turnout was over 100 students, so I am honestly just grateful for everyone who contributed and made this event possible. I’m glad that we were able to create a fun and safe environment for people who never got to have a prom due to COVID-19 or couldn’t be out in high school.”
Olivia Blades, a student at SSU, stated that “I recently got involved in QSA because I have friends who I work with at the HUB, who are in QSA. My experience at Queer Prom was so fun and it was nice to hang with new people and make new friends.”
Developing new relationships in college is something that many people look forward to, and the QSA helps students by providing a welcoming space for queer students through the HUB. Throughout their mission at SSU, they have truly made a historically marginalized group of people feel respected, valued and heard.
Quattro Daly is a third year transfer student who spent their Friday night meeting new people and socializing at Queer Prom. They said, “last semester was my first semester here at SSU. I’m friends with a couple ambassadors from the HUB and QSA, everyone I’ve ever interacted with from there has been super kind to me.”
Daly later discussed their experiences with QSA, as this is the first on-campus event that they have attended at SSU. This was solely due to their schedules and online classes, so they were excited to finally gather and hang out with their friends in person. As a transfer student, it can be hard to meet groups who have already established relationships, but QSA is focused on welcoming students with open arms.
When surrounded by friends and people who have gone through similar experiences in high school, going to an event like Queer Prom can help to calm the anxieties that come with attending an event like this.
