Applying for University has always been a nightmare for students. Some of the most trivial things seem to come into consideration, such as:
- Where is my Uni on the League Tables?
- Are there any good societies?
- What’s the night life like?
One thing that never even entered my mind, however, was whether there was a large LGBTQ+ community.
As a queer woman coming from a small town in the rural Southwest, I assumed that any city (any university, for that matter) would have an established and proud Queer identity ingrained in the student circles. Yet, as I arrived in Exeter last year, my assumptions seemed to be off kilter.
Freshers’ week was pretty much everything everyone always wants it to be. I met some amazing people, and even better friends that are wholly supportive of my identity, and whom I still love and care about today. But it was also incredibly intimidating, finding that I had to ‘come out’ to almost every single person I met. The heteronormative assumption of which guy was ‘my type’ was still being put onto me without any prompt, leaving me spluttering for ways to explain that in fact no – no guys will ever be my type.
It took a long time before I found more people like me. A friend of a friend, a partner in a seminar, someone I met on a night out. Little by little, our own community began to grow, with shared experiences as Queer people bonding us together as a collective with a unique experience within the university. Over the year, some of my closest friends were people that I found within our group. I finally felt like I may have found a community that I could truly be myself in.
For a while, I was happy with this make-shift arrangement. However, it can be easy to forget about the bigger picture. Whilst I hoped that my friends and I were a microcosm for the wider society around us, this never proved to be wholly correct. Outside of us, there was still the daunting prospect of an old city, and a stereotypically conservative student population within which we never seemed to fit. Along with this, the absence of Queer spaces within Exeter became blatant. With only one prominent LGBTQ+ club in Exeter (The Vaults), there always seemed to be an astounding lack of places where we could go and feel safe to express ourselves. Even in Pride month, we found ourselves celebrating behind our accommodation blocks, with a small yet inspiring display of solidarity despite the circumstances.
Being queer in Exeter has undoubtedly shaped me as an individual. I’ve become even more passionate about the importance of LGBTQ+ communities within universities and society in general. Queer spaces are vital. With an increasing acceptance of diversity, I can only hope that our communities continue to grow – louder and prouder than ever before.