Welcome to the Queer Resource Center
Connect With Us
The Queer Resource Center's physical space remains closed to keep our community safer. We continue to provide community spaces, resources, and support virtually. We have adapted many of our resources to remain accessible online and have compiled other resources to support those working and learning from home. Click here to see our living document of the QRC's COVID-19 resources. See additional information, announcements, and QRC happenings below.
QRC’s Discord Server: Meet and chat with queer and trans students through our Discord Server! Students share things like art, pet photos, or just chat, video, or voice call! Open 24/7 | Click Here to Join
Virtual Queer Library: Visit the Virtual Queer Library, curated by our resident bi-brarian. This virtual library includes a collection of books, zines, essays, and poetry by and for queer and trans people. | Click here for the Virtual Queer Library
Our Mission
The Queer Resource Center supports queer and trans students at Portland State University to achieve their educational goals through advocacy, community, and celebration. The Queer Resource Center prioritizes a racial justice framework to improve campus climate through education, policy change, and campus-wide organizing.
Our Vision
The Queer Resource Center strives to provide students with the support they need to persist to graduation through increasing equity and access for queer and trans students at Portland State University.
Our History
The Queer Resource Center began in the early 2000s as a series of student organizations under various names (Queers and Allies, PSU LGBT Roundtable).
- 2003-2004: Incidents exposed the need for the QRC to expand its focus from a gathering place to a campus resource and referral agency. Students identified staff and faculty allies, hosted open forums, and convened stakeholders.
- 2005: One graduate student and two student staff members helped to found a speaker series, targeted trainings, a lending library, and a volunteer program.
- 2006: QRC student staff convened their advisory board to define staff roles and expectations, further refine high-profile events, and open the doors of a physical Queer Resource Center space in Smith Memorial Student Union. Increased visibility allowed more students to access the QRC with complex needs around advocacy, advising and crisis intervention.
- 2007: Stakeholders created a plan to transition from a student group to a department within student affairs with a professional staff trained to manage finances, support student staff, provide continuity and institutional memory, and to grow the center as new needs arise.
- 2010: The plan was implemented and fully completed.
- 2011: The Queer Resource Center launched its first Queer Students of Color Conference (QSOCC), one of the first of its kind, now held annually in Spring.
- 2012-2013: The Queer Resource Center supported the creation of the first all-gender bathroom on campus in Smith Memorial Student Union. Now all new building and updates buildings house at least one all-gender bathroom.
- 2018: The Trans Resources and Retention Coordinator at the Queer Resource Center organized the first Trans Action and Care Conference (TACC), now held annually in November.
- 2019: The Queer Resource Center shifts its Queer Students of Color Resources and Retention Coordinator from a part time position to full time, expanding services, programming, and support.
- 2019-2020: Our Queer Students of Color Coordinator hosted our first racial equity analysis and launched our first Queer Student of Color Programming Board.
- Today: The QRC, housed under the Dean of Student Life, exists as the queer and trans student hub, and resource/referral center, and home of Portland State queer and trans event traditions with four full time professional staff members, four specialized student coordinators, and four skilled members of our desk team.
About Our Staff
K Keith
They/Them/Theirs
Director
K is the director of the QRC and has been around PSU for about a decade now. K just graduated from the Master's of Social Work program and has another degree in higher education administration. They are so stoked to join the rest of the QRC staff in dreaming up and creating spaces on campus that are focused on queer and trans community. K is an Aquarius sun sign with a cancer moon and trust us it shows. Want to get K talking? Ask them about their favorite conspiracy theory or show them a picture of your pet.
GP
They/Them/Theirs
Office Manager
GP is a PSU alum of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, has worked with the QRC as a student employee, and now is a full time staff member in their role as the Office Manager. GP's dream is to be an impactful member of their community and they are grateful to have a role in supporting trans and queer students at PSU. They also serve as a co-chair for SAGE (Sexuality and Gender Equity Task Force) at PSU and organize with their union. GP's background is in marketing and media, fundraising, coffee making, writing, and community development. Outside of work, GP loves gardening, cooking, sharing what they make and grow, and reading sci fi.
Miette LaPierre
She/Her/Hers & They/Them/Theirs
Volunteer Coordinator
Miette is in their fourth year studying at PSU. She is majoring in jazz music and working on a minor in queer studies. After having worked as a member of the desk staff for a year and a half, Miette is excited to be stepping into the volunteer coordinator position! In addition to working at the QRC, Miette assistant directs and conducts musicals and sings at jazz jams around Portland. Miette is an avid reader, a tea aficionado, and a true Leo.
Aoi Tsuda
She/Her/Hers & They/Them/Theirs
Desk Team
Aoi is a proud, bisexual Japanese woman that is very passionate about serving her community. She is a sophomore student at Portland State University, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Women's Studies. This is her first year working with the QRC and she is excited to be a part of a diverse queer community that works to dismantle oppressive systems. When she is not working, she likes to sing and play her guitar named Stevie (after the icon Stevie Nicks), watches TV shows and movies, baking, and journaling.
Mena
She/Her/Ella
Assistant Director
Mena is a queer Latinx who has been a social services champion for the past ten years. Through a trauma-informed approach, she has acted as an advocate utilizing therapeutic practices with underrepresented groups. Mena’s initial work with Camp OUTdoors! and One n ten in Arizona inspired her to continue to work with the queer and trans community. In her free time she loves exploring new places, bouldering, and spending time with friends, her partner, senior-pup and celebrity look alike, little Miss Betty White (she looks just like her!).
Willow Grace Eckmayer
They/Them/Theirs
Queeries Coordinator
Willow Grace is currently a Sophomore studying Social Work and Gender, Sexuality and Queer studies. They are a nature loving, adventuring, and out-going Trans Femme who finds ways to explore in every part of their daily life. Willow Grace has been apart of the Queeries Program since they started at Portland State and has a passion for paneling and furthering folks education. They are an abolitionist who believe in liberation for all and is constantly exploring what that means for different folks. Willow Grace is also a lover of coffee, tea, and their many houseplants.
H. Benjamin
He/Him/His
Queer Students of Color Resources and Retention Coordinator
H. Benjamin (HB) earned his BA in Behavioral Science (2016) from SJSU and his MSW degree from PSU in 2020. Professionally, he spent 12+ years working in special education at public schools and with people with disabilities. He currently also works as a freelance racial equity consultant and sits on a local nonprofit’s board of directors. In his spare time, he enjoys dancing, karaoke, concerts, tennis, awing the ocean, spooky movies, video games, farmers markets, and hanging with his tuxedo kittens, Bayard and Barack.
Inez Pulido
They/Them/Theirs
Desk Team
Inez is currently a junior at PSU studying Creative Writing in hopes of writing stories that have marginalized characters at the forefront. They use identities like, Mexican, bisexual, non-binary, and genderfluid. Aside from working with the Desk staff, they are working with the Queer & Trans, Black and Indigenous, Students of Color Affinity Group to create a more inclusive space for queer students of color.