Mission Statement

The Swarthmore Queer Union (SQU) is an organization that seeks to improve the life of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, queer, and questioning students. SQU is dedicated to building a community for these students that is a safe, confidential space for members to explore their individual and community identities, share experiences, and reflect on community issues.

Description & History

SQU is a community group that is for students who self-identify as queer or questioning only. In this document, “queer” is meant to be inclusive of any labels used to identify oneself as non-heterosexual or non-cisgender, including LGBT. This community group status directs SQU to program events for members to safely share and celebrate their experiences and perspectives as queer and questioning people. All SQU events are expressly for queer and questioning people unless otherwise noted. In addition to having weekly meetings, SQU sponsors speakers, workshops, student/faculty/staff events, open meetings, awareness and outreach events, and parties throughout the year. SQU also advocates to the administration for queer and questioning issues related to student life, faculty, and curriculum. SQU is a founding member of the Intercultural Center (IC) of Swarthmore College. SQU (then called Action Les-B-Gay), along with Enlace (then called the Hispanic Organization for Latino Awareness) and the Swarthmore Asian Organization, came together to found the IC in 1991.