Journal of College & University Student Housing Volume 50, No. 3 - 21

More Than an Assemblage of Queers
. . . the scholarly personal narrative methodology embraces
an individual's narrative storytelling and then engages in
an examination of those stories to make broader claims
beyond the personal experience.
an academic endeavor focused on unpacking the complexity of queerness beyond what they
already experienced themselves; they only cared about the LLP as far as it served as a refuge
from the local and campus environments.
Their disinterest caused me some distress. I spent the two months prior to move-in interrogating
current PDs about requirements, leadership opportunities, and how they structured
their programs. On the one hand, I wanted the students to build the environment they wanted.
On the other hand, I felt responsible for holding them accountable to the cocurricular
and academic expectations of being in an LLP. I tried to figure out what would serve these
students the best, and I decided that the best way to engage them was to have them co-create
norms and expectations for what it means to be in an LGBTQ+ LLP. In the months that
followed, I created ample opportunities for students to tell me what they wanted and needed
and invited them to step into leadership roles within the community. I kept them grounded
and informed about the necessary requirements of an LLP, and as much as possible I allowed
their feedback to guide decisions.
Eventually, the students and I found a system that worked for cocurricular engagement. I
worked with those students who wanted additional social events or educational opportunities,
and they became my sounding board to plan for the entire group. Slowly, students began to
engage with the social and educational opportunities more and demonstrated an investment
in the community. Despite the conflicts and challenges, I believe that the past year allowed
us (myself, the faculty, and the students) to identify a clearer picture of what the LLP is and
what membership means for the students involved.
Discussion of SPN 1
The challenges of building this LLP community were beautifully and frustratingly
queer, as witnessed through student resistance to required learning about queerness,
coupled with their desire to be in community without any expectations for participation.
These seemingly contradictory dynamics required the first author to accept
student resistance as a queering of the institutionally prescribed or charted course for
community development. We must recognize the paradox: An LGBTQ+ LLP, even as
it seeks to resist the dynamics of traditionally heterogendered institutions (Preston &
Hoffman, 2015), still comports with normativities, for otherwise it would not receive
institutional recognition and support. The institutionalization of queer life through
the creation of an LGBTQ+ LLP is essentially an alignment (Ferguson, 2012). Within a
traditionally heterogendered institution, LGBTQ+ students are outsiders-which was
ostensibly the argument that supported the need for this LLP-who embraced (unconsciously
or consciously) this status and rejected the institutional expectations of the
community. We cannot help but wonder how to convey the need for LGBTQ+ LLPs
while adequately considering anti-assimilationist perspectives (Warner, 1999), and we
need to consider thinking about queering LGBTQ+ LLPs as a queer project through a
18 The Journal of College and University Student Housing

Journal of College & University Student Housing Volume 50, No. 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Journal of College & University Student Housing Volume 50, No. 3