Last semester, I wrote a story for Columbia’s Echo Magazine about people in the genderqueer community, and it turned out fantastic! It ended up as the cover story, and I was absolutely thrilled with the final product. More recently, during this past weekend, the coordinator at the office of LGBTQ Culture and Community for Columbia, K. Bradford, who was a huge help with finding people to talk to who identify as genderqueer, got in touch with me and invited me to Common Ground’s seventh annual Gender Fusions event in the 618 S. Michigan Ave. Building.
K. asked me if I would like to attend and possibly write a story for The Columbia Chronicle, Columbia’s student-run newspaper I work for, covering the Gender Fusions event. I was extremely honored and said I would love to! I arrived on April 16 with my recorder, notepad and pen in hand and camera ready to get my story! Overall, it was a wonderul event, and I loved the ‘Superhero Queer-O’ theme for this year. People were donning costumes, capes and masks, and the energy was positive and uplifting. The fierce spirit of the LGBTQ community in Chicago was definitely celebrated that night, and it was nice to see all types of gay people and gender identities coming together as one.