UNC’s LGBTQ Center is hosting Queer FallFest, which promotes queer-affirming and queer-centric organizations on campus while allowing students to connect with them and fellow students.
The event will be held on Monday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Upendo Lounge in the North Student and Academic Services Building.
Terri Phoenix, director of the UNC LGBTQ center, said T oversaw all programming for the event and worked with the center’s assistant director and administrative support specialist to prepare for the event.
“One of the things that we know from research is that when people have supportive peers, when they have relationships with supportive peers, that they do better academically, they do better psychologically, and so this event is going to help facilitate those connections with supportive peers,” Phoenix said.
Queer FallFest is aimed to help students get connected with other queer and transgender students and organizations, while also learning what resources are available to them, T said.
Phoenix said T thought Queer FallFest is more personal than FallFest, an annual campus-wide event that aims to welcome back students to campus.
“I've been to FallFest every year since I've worked at the University, and that's been since 2005, and it's always really fun, but it's kind of overwhelming for some folks, and I think that the smaller, more focused way of connecting with the student orgs is better for a lot of folks,” Phoenix said.
Esmé Kerr, a senior who plans to attend Queer FallFest, said the most beneficial part of attending will be seeing how connected students can be to a queer community in a university setting.
“Just chatting with other queer people that maybe don't have the same interest as you, because I know that that's always such a comforting thing to me, is just being like, ‘Wow, it's normal to be queer’,” they said.