About the Center for Gender + Sexualities

A history of our former center and programs

In the fall of 2023, the Women’s Resource Center (WRC) and the Sexualities and Gender Diversity Programs (SGDP) merged together to become the Center for Gender + Sexualities. In doing so, the Center has streamlined and expanded the former programs to better serve the Hamline community.

A History of the Women’s Resource Center at Hamline

Student activists created the Women’s Resource Center (WRC) in 1983. Its earliest role was to address the needs of women at Hamline, largely through educating the campus community about issues related to women's rights.

For over 40 years, the WRC's student, staff, and faculty leadership worked tirelessly toward gender equity. The WRC has facilitated educational programming and co-curricular activities on gender-based issues; offers service-learning projects, internships, and leadership experiences to students; collaborates with on- and off-campus organizations to enrich the Hamline community; and provides a range of resources and supplies to help students meet their basic needs.

Past WRC activities included:

  • Reading and discussion groups
  • Film screenings
  • Community service projects
  • Guest speakers
  • Garment fundraisers and donation drives
  • Women's History Month celebrations
  • Special events, including Take Back the Campus
  • Collaborating with SALD on the Women’s Leadership Retreat
  • Pushing a campus dialogue on Period Poverty and creating a system change to offer menstrual supplies throughout campus in collaboration with HUSC.
  • Increasing the dialogue about the need for students to be able to access affordable Emergency Contraception.

Hamline's LGBTQIA+ history

Hamline University has a rich LGBTQIA+ history. Mariah Timm, a previous Sexuality and Gender Diversity Programs intern, researched Hamline’s queer history and created the timeline below to honor the community members who fought for their rights, as well as the rights and privileges we enjoy today, so that we may remember their efforts and do the same for the people who come after us.

As it is important to continue to document Hamline’s ongoing queer story, Timm has extended an invitation to those who would like to continue this work:

“Hamline’s queer history is rich. Through adversity, our community has held strong and cared for one another. I am not a historian, nor someone who is tied to academia, but I am a queer person that feels revived in discovering and learning about queer ancestors.

We’ve just scratched the surface of documenting the arc of Hamline’s queer story, and though, unfortunately, I am unable to continue this work, I would love to see this project live on.

If any students, faculty, staff, or community members want to help contribute to our work, please email queer@hamline.edu.”

About our name

Over the past several years, there has been an increased attention to the names of our former spaces, in particular the Women’s Resource Center, as students have advocated for a name that more accurately reflects our already inclusive and intersectional work. The name Center for Gender + Sexualities was selected based on feedback from focus groups of Hamline students, faculty, and staff, as well as in consultation with experts on gender and sexuality programs across the nation.

Following the lead of queer communities, the Center has adapted the plus sign to signify there are numerous ways individuals 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.

A timeline of LGBTQIA+ struggle and equality at Hamline

Year Event
1975 The Hamline Year Book liner notes mentions “gayness” for the first time.
1991

The first HUSC chartered student organization for gay, lesbian, and bisexual students is formed. The mission of GLBC and Friends' was to “provide a safe and strong support network for gay, lesbian, and bisexual students through meetings and social activities.”

GLBC and Friends later changed its name to Queers and Peers.
1992 Hamline hires an openly lesbian Dean of Students, Marilyn Deppe.
1994 Hamline University’s Board of Trustees approves the university's current Diversity Policy.
1995 Professor Emeritus Máel Embser-Herbert leads the first First Year Seminar on the topic of HIV/AIDS.
1998

The Merv Meyers-Jeff Nash Scholarship is founded, established by Dwight P. Joyner (CLA ‘86) in honor of Professor Merv Meyer and his partner Jeff Nash. The award recognizes an undergraduate junior or senior student with financial need who is a self-proclaimed lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender student, and is actively involved in community service.

The recipients of this award demonstrate a legacy of service to the LGBTQIA+ and Hamline University communities.
2000

The LGBTQIA+ student organization changes its name from Queer to Peers to Spectrum.

Hamline’s faculty and staff begin to fight for domestic partner benefits.
2002 A new LGBTQIA+ centered course debuts: Sexuality, Gender Identity, & Law. It is taught by Professor Máel Embser-Herbert.
2005

Hamline establishes the Safe Zone Program for students, faculty, and staff with the guidance and leadership of founding coordinators Carlos Sneed, Javier Guiterrez, and many other staff members.

Hamline hires its first employee focused on LGBTQ+ specific programming and resources in the Multicultural Life office.
2012

Students protest and occupy Old Main to object to Hamline University President Linda N. Hanson’s refusal to make a statement on the Minnesota Gay Marriage amendment.

The first Q-Unity annual three-day camping retreat for queer students to learn and grow into their queerness is launched.
2013

LGBTQIA+ mentorship based program Queer 2 Peer begins.

Trans community and support group Transform begins.
2015 The Safe Zone Program is renamed the Rainbow Inclusion Network, based on the message and the framework to show that Hamline is welcoming and inclusive for LGBTQIA+ communities.
2018 Students begin an all-gender restroom campaign to rename all the single stall restrooms. As of fall 2018, there are 17 all-gender restrooms on campus.
2020

The Love Boldly initiative passes a resolution in order for Hamline to become a reconciling university. The resolution was unanimously passed by the Faculty Council, the Hamline University Staff Association (HUSA), and the Hamline University Student Congress (HUSC).

Hamline’s welcoming statement as a reconciling university is:

“Throughout its history, Hamline University has strived to create a diverse and inclusive learning community. As a school that invites all and is committed to continued learning and growth, Hamline University welcomes and celebrates people of all educational backgrounds, nationalities, religious and spiritual identities, socio-economic classes, mental and physical abilities and disabilities, marital statuses, cultural identities, racial and ethnic identities, immigration statuses, veteran status, gender expressions, sexual orientations, and gender identities.”

Canvas and Workday, which Hamline uses for academics, courses, and work study, are updated to include preferred name options and pronouns.

QTBIPOC forms as a student group to provide queer and trans* students of color a chance to connect and to create a community on campus.
2022 Drew Hall renovations includes updated gender inclusive restrooms, heralding a new era of bathroom access in the Hamline dorms. Each bathroom now has full enclosures and space to change in the shower stalls with complete privacy.

 

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