Center for Gender + Sexualities FAQs

Answers to your questions and language guide

Below we hope to answer questions you may have about the newly formed Center for Gender + Sexualities, as well as provide a guide on the language and practices that the center and the Hamline community will use.

About the Center

  • What happened to the Women’s Resource Center?

    To better serve current students’ needs and interests, we integrated the Women’s Resource Center and the Sexualities and Gender Diversity Programs into one space: the Center for Gender + Sexualities. The new center will continue the historical and impactful work of these former programs to advance equity, build community, and cultivate leadership around gender and sexuality for everyone at Hamline.

  • Why did you change your name?

    Having a name that accurately reflects our inclusive and intersectional work is important. That is why we looked to experts in gender and sexuality for guidance as well as listened to feedback from students, faculty, and staff on what they felt a more appropriate name would be.
     

  • Why is sexualities plural but not gender?

    We use “sexualities” because we aren’t looking at sex as only a biological term referring to men, women, and intersex people. For the Center, sexualities also includes sexual identities, desires, experiences, and relationships. We believe “gender” already encompasses the facets of identity and presentation.

  • Why the plus (+) sign?

    Following the lead of queer communities, the Center has adapted the plus sign (+) to signify there are numerous ways people can identify and still belong. The plus also acknowledges the intersections of our identities: Serving gender and sexuality cannot happen without also recognizing that race, class, disability, body size, religion, and other aspects of our identities add to, and change, our experiences in the world.

  • Will the Center have an acronym?

    We know that most of Hamline’s offices and programs have acronyms, but we have yet to settle on one for the Center for Gender + Sexualities. In the meantime, we are using both CG+S and GplusS. However, we are taking suggestions for other acronyms, so if you have an idea, please email t. aaron hans at genderplussexualities@hamline.edu.

  • Where is the Center located?

    We are located in Anderson 320 (home of the former Women’s Resource Center). Students can use the community space for informal gatherings and meetings during daytime hours.
     

  • Who is included in the Center?

    Everyone! The Center for Gender + Sexualities believes that everyone has a gender identity and sexual identity, including those that identify as agender and asexual.
     

  • How can I get involved?

    There are several ways you can get involved with the Center for Gender + Sexualities. We regularly have opportunities to volunteer or intern with us, and we hire several work study positions each academic year. We also encourage you to connect with us at our many programs and events. You can always stop by our space in Anderson 320 to talk with us and learn more about our work!

Language and definitions

Please know that people often use the same language to mean different things, so it's important to clarify with others about what identity terms mean for them.
 

Word/Concept Definition
Femme A person of any gender whose gender expression is feminine. Femme is also a gender identity to some.
Healthy sexuality Healthy sexuality is knowing and feeling empowered to express sexuality in ways that are emotionally, socially, and physically enriching. This requires attention to the values, attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that lead to consensual, respectful, and safe sexual interactions and relationships. Healthy sexuality is free from coercion and violence.
Intersectional feminism

People’s identities can overlap in ways that create compounding experiences of discrimination and exacerbate various forms of inequality. This is what professor Kimberlé Crenshaw meant when she coined the term intersectionality in 1989. Recently she was quoted in a Time article saying “It’s basically a lens, a prism, for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other. We tend to talk about race inequality as separate from inequality based on gender, class, sexuality or immigrant status. What’s often missing is how some people are subject to all of these, and the experience is not just the sum of its parts.”

Learn more about intersectional feminism from an international view, in this UN Women article.
LGBTQIA+ LGBTQIA+ is an acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, queer, intersex, and asexual people. The plus (+) signifies identities not explicitly included in the acronym, such as pansexual and nonbinary. There are many gender identities and sexual orientations that the acronym cannot yet fully capture.
Queer Queer describes sexual and gender identities other than straight and cisgender. We often use queer as a “bucket” to capture a range of diverse genders and sexualities, but it is also a specific and unique term that some people choose to identify as.
Trans* Trans* encompasses a broad spectrum of gender identities that includes but is not limited to: transgender, transsexual, crossdresser, drag, genderqueer, Two-Spirit (and other Indigenous identities), androgynous, agender, bigender, and people who are gender diverse and gender expressive. The asterisk is used as a visible signifier of the complexity and diversity of trans* communities.
Women Any adult who identifies as and lives as a female, regardless of their assigned sex at birth, is a women. Cisgender, transgender, and intersex people can be women.

 

Contact information