By Rowan Behm
The Scene staff
Forest Park had an LGBTQ+ club for more than two decades, but it fell dormant in 2015, and an effort to revive it two years later was unsuccessful.
Today, a new group of students is determined to make it work by structuring a club in a way that ensures its longevity.
The new club is called Pride Alliance. It’s for both members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies.
“There is a lack of clubs that go for creating an environment on campus for the LGBTQ+ students,” said Calvin Carson, 19, a general transfer studies student who is vice president of Pride Alliance.
“We are basically saying, ‘Hey, there are queer people on campus. We aren’t going away.’ We want to have conversations with students and faculty and make sure that STLCC is an inclusive environment.”
The club president is Andy Gayle, 22, an accounting major. She and other founders were inspired by the mission and activities of Queer Alliance, a club on the Florissant Valley campus of St. Louis Community College.
Gayle expects to graduate at the end of fall semester. Her goal is to make sure Pride Alliance continues to exist at Forest Park for years to come.
“This school deserves an official space for queer students,” Gayle said. “I wanted to help create the foundations for a club like this and really get the project started so that maybe there’s a fighting chance for it to stick around.”
The Pride Alliance adviser is Rene Freels, who came into the picture during spring semester, when students began collecting signatures to start a new club.
“I told them I admired what they were doing, and then they asked me to step in and help them get started,” she said. “I am a mom of a trans teen, and I also work here in the library on campus. I was shocked when I found out our campus didn’t already have an organization like this.”
In addition to advising Pride Alliance, Freels is involved with other organizations related to the LGBTQ+ community that do political action work.
“I like that we have someone who gets it and is willing to go the extra mile as an adviser,” Carson said.
Beginning in May, Freels and the club founders worked with Tanya Carr, student activities specialist in Forest Park’s Campus Life office, which oversees extracurricular activities. They finalized paperwork to make Pride Alliance an official club.
Since that time, they’ve been trying to spread the word that they’re looking for new members and otherwise planning and building the organization. So far, 12 students have signed up.
“The beauty about (STLCC) is that as long as you have a group of interested students and a staff or faculty adviser, you can start any club or organization,” said Donivan Foster, Campus Life manager.
Pride Alliance’s first meeting will be held 1 to 2 p.m. Aug. 23 in Room SC-118. It’s open for anyone to join, whether students identify as LGBTQ+ or as allies. Interested people can scan the QR code on the flier around campus or at the end of this story and fill out a quick online form.
“We have not selected any board officers yet,” Gayle said. “We might do that at our second meeting on Sept. 6.”
Forest Park’s previous LGBTQ+ organization, Voices, was formed more than 25 years ago by Charles Koehler, who has since retired from the media service department. The club’s mission was to help create a safe community, encourage diversity and raise queer awareness on campus.
The challenge Voices faced, like many other clubs, is that the most active members graduate after two years, according to Foster. “It’s just kind of the nature of the commuter student population,” he said. “Being able to appoint student leadership and getting the newer students involved earlier is so important.”
Club members plan to solidify their foundation by tapping into the St. Louis community and bringing in more people passionate about continuing this organization.
“Even when we’re not here, we still want that support system set for the next administration that comes in,” Carson said. “You’ll have people that will put in a lot of effort with clubs, but we need to make sure there’s someone behind them ready to pick up the torch and keep it going.
“We want there to continue to be a voice for students advocating for an inclusive and diverse environment.”
Pride Alliance leaders have already set a schedule full of events for fall semester, including a drag brunch, a prismatic ball (rainbow prom) in partnership with Campus Life, an LGBTQ+ inclusive sex-education seminar and trans awareness partnerships with Metro Trans Umbrella Group.
“This is an inclusive space to have fun, to educate, and to forge a sense of community,” Gayle said.
Club members plan to work with LGBTQ+ groups on the other STLCC campuses and hold joint events, such as mixers, so students can meet each other, socialize and have fun.
Foster said he’s glad that LGBTQ+ students are rebuilding the sense of community that started with Voices.
“There’s been that gap,” he said, referring to the past few years with no active LGBTQ+ club. “This organization is great for the Forest Park campus. All students’ voices are welcome at the tab