The LGBTQ+ Center is a University-wide resource and research hub for students, faculty, and employees. Its purpose is to organize, coordinate, and innovate LGBTQIA+ (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or questioning, intersex, asexual/aromantic/agender, allies, and more) issues in the St. John’s University ecosystem to create and sustain an open and welcoming environment for LGBTQIA+ students, faculty, and employees.
Office Location: St. John Hall 216 (Gender Neutral Restroom Available)
Office Hours (check Instagram for weekly office hour updates): Mondays: 12 noon–6 p.m. | Tuesdays: 10:45 a.m.–6 p.m | Wednesdays: 9 a.m.–4 p.m. | Thursdays: 9 a.m.–4 p.m. | Fridays: 9 a.m.– 3 p.m.
Tel 718-990-3720
Follow The LGBTQ+ Center: Instagram | Linktr.ee | St. John's Connect Group
About The LGBTQ+ Center
Through partnerships and collaborations with key University offices and divisions, The LGBTQ+ Center supports five main areas:
- Education initiatives
- Event programming
- Institutional climate
- Policy and procedure
- Student support
The LGBTQ+ Center in The Torch: “No Straight Lines”: How the New SJU LGBTQ+ Center Fosters Community
The center was formed in 2021 due to the efforts and advocacy of faculty, alumni, administrators, and staff, including the Chief Diversity Officer, the Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Vice Provost for Global Programs, the Director of the Academic Center for Equity and Inclusion, and a faculty member in the Department of English.
Many people had been working separately and together on LGBTQIA+ issues at St. John’s. They worked with SPECTRUM, the student-led group on the Queens and Staten Island, NY, campuses, as well as other students, faculty, and employees, on issues related to bathrooms, housing, and counseling. They also collaborated with the Office of Human Resources on issues related to employees.
Candice D. Roberts, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Division of Mass Communication, and Shanté Paradigm Smalls, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Black Studies, and Faculty, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, who left St. John's in 2023, decided that a comprehensive approach to drastically improve the lives and experiences of LGBTQIA+ members of the St. John’s community was needed. They formed a small task force and began inviting undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, administrators, and staff to join in collaborating on policies and projects to fully integrate LGBTQIA+ community members into University life. From that work came the climate report from the Transgender Training Institute, which helped to galvanize and orient our work at St. John’s University across campuses.
In the Spring of 2021, they proposed to Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P., President, and former Chief Diversity Officer Nada Llewellyn, Esq., the idea of a resourced and staffed LGBTQ+ center at St. John’s University.
Candice D. Roberts, Ph.D. (they/them) | Associate Professor, Division of Mass Communication | Director of Research
Dr. Roberts earned a Ph.D. in Communication, Culture, and Media from Drexel University. Broadly their work examines cultural narrative and identity in popular media and consumer culture, and they use critical queer theory to interrogate archetypes, sociality, and themes of class, sexuality, and space/place. Recent publications include articles in the Journal for Cultural Research and in Film, Fashion & Consumption and an edited volume entitled Consumer Identities: Agency, Media and Digital Culture.
Kelsey Oliveira (she/they) | Director, LGBTQ+ Center
Kelsey Oliveira received her MS. Ed in Student Development from Alfred University. In her work, she has diligently connected marginalized students to the campus community in efforts such as developing peer mentorship and retention programs for underrepresented students, building inclusive and identity-affirming spaces, and leading initiatives and trainings on bias response, microaggressions, and social identity. Furthermore, through innovation, support and intentionality, Kelsey works vigorously to ensure wholistic and intersectional support to the St.John's Community.
Deana Leonce, Coordinator for Resource Centers
Office Location: St. John Hall 216 (Gender Neutral Restroom Available)
Office Hours (check Instagram for weekly office hour updates): Mondays: 12 p.m.–6 p.m. | Tuesdays: 12 p.m.–6 p.m | Wednesdays: 9 a.m.–4 p.m. | Thursdays: 10 a.m.–4 p.m. | Fridays: 9 a.m.– 3 p.m.
Email: [email protected]
Tel 718-990-3720
Follow The LGBTQ+ Center
Events
Lavender Graduation Ceremony
Join us for St. John's second annual Lavender Graduation!
Thursday, May 9
4 p.m.
DAC 416 (Ballroom) | Queens Campus
Who is invited?
Any graduating St. John's student (undergraduate, graduate, professional) who identifies as part of the wider LGBTQ+ community. Faculty and staff are also invited to participate in the celebration and will receive a card.
How will the event work?
Graduating students will be honored at a ceremony in the DAC ballroom, where you will receive a special lavender honor card. The ceremony will also feature selected awards, a keynote speaker, and special guests from the university. There will also be refreshments and photo ops!
View the flyer (PDF)
WORKSHOP SERIES
“Queer Vibes Only: Reimagining Pedagogy, Visibility, and Activism in Queer-Inclusive Courses”
Academic Center for Equity & Inclusion (ACEI)
Session 1: “The ABCs of LGBTQ+ Inclusion: Pedagogy, Act Up”
Wednesday, October 12, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., brown-bag lunch. Register for Session 1!
Session 2: “Don’t Let Your Inner Saboteur Get in Your Way: from How We Teach to Shaping an Out-Loud Syllabus”
Wednesday, November 2, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., brown-bag lunch. Register for Session 2!
Employee Happy Hours
Tuesday, April 25 | 4–6 p.m.
St. John Hall 216| Queens Campus
Join us for some snacks, cocktails, and a well-deserved break in the LGBQ+ center! Network, relax and get to know the center in St. John Hall 216. Open to all St. John's employees.
Spirituality & Identity
Thursday, February 23 | 5–7 p.m.
Inclusivity Resource Center, Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall | Queens Campus
Join us at a special workshop where we center spirituality, Blackness, queerness, and tarot.
Dreaming of a Better Future with the Ali Forney Center–A Community Service Event
Monday, February 6 | 1:50 p.m.–3:15 p.m.
Inclusivity Resource Center, Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall | Queens Campus
“Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.”—Rev. Martin Luther King. Jr.
The Office of Multicultural Affairs is committed to upholding the Vincentian mission of St. John’s University. Join us for an afternoon as we prepare care packages filled with essential supplies for homeless LGBTQ+ youth in need in the New York City area. All care packages will be donated and distributed by the Ali Forney Center.
Book Launch!
Monday, November 7, 6:30 p.m. via Zoom
Join the conversation and learn about Hip Hop Heresies: Queer Aesthetics in New York City with Shanté Smalls, Ph.D. (St. Johns University) and Lauron Kehrer, Ph.D. (Western Michigan
University).
Sponsored by the LGBTQ+ Center, Office of Multicultural Affairs, St. John's College Department of English, and the Institute for Critical Race and Ethnic Studies.
Queer Vibes Only: Reimagining Pedagogy, Visibility, & Activism in Queer Inclusive Courses
Co-Facilitated by Dr. Danielle Bacibianco and Dr. Lisa Robinson
The ABCs of LGBTQ+ Inclusion: Pedagogy, Act Up
Wednesday, October 12: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. in-person or online, Register here!
Don’t Let Your Inner Saboteur Get In Your Way: From How We Teach to Shaping an Out-Loud Syllabus
Wednesday, November 2: 10 a.m.-1 p.m., in-person or online, Register here!
Download our Queer Vibes Only Flyer!
October is LGBTQ+ History Month
Oct 11: National Coming Out Day
Oct 19: Spirit Day
Oct 26: Intersex Awareness Day
Last week of October: Asexual Awareness Week
LGBTQ+ Center Open House
Friday, September 30, 12–2 p.m., drop in!
Come to St. John Hall, Room 216 to see the newly minted Center. Mingle, chat, snack. Masks required.
Download and share our Open House Flyer!
LGBTQ+ Research Jam
April 20, 2022
St. Augustine Hall, 2-145 (2nd Floor), Queens Campus
12 noon-3 p.m., in person
Please join us for our first ever research jam! If you are working on research related to sexuality, gender, identity, community, culture, or other LGBTQ+ studies areas— jam with us! Bring your ideas at any stage for interaction, feedback, and collaborative opportunities. All disciplines and faculty, staff, and students welcome. This is an in-person event and food and drinks will be served. Please register with the link in our linktree or the QR code on the flyer.
Safe Zone Level 1 Training
The Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) is offering a re-vamped and completely new Safe Zone Level 1 training. Thursday, March 10, 5-7pm in the Inclusivity Resource Center.
For questions about Safe Zone, please reach out to Kerlin Morales, Graduate Assistant For Student Equity Workshops.
RSVP for Safe Zone Training on March 10.
The LGBTQ+ Center Presents
No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics
documentary screening + Q &A with Director Vivian Kleiman
March 17, 2022 @ 5p EST
D'Angelo Center, Room 206
In-Person or Virtual Attendance information available below
No Straight Lines tells the story of five scrappy and pioneering cartoonists who depicted everything from the AIDS crisis, coming out, and same-sex marriage, to themes of race, gender, and disability. They tackled the humor in queer lives in a changing world, and the everyday pursuits of love, sex, and community. Their work is funny, smart, and profound, and provides a unique, uncensored window into LGBTQ lives from the 1970s onward, beginning at a time in which there was no other genuine queer storytelling in popular culture. Equally engaging are their personal journeys, as they, against all odds, helped build a queer comics underground that has been able to grow and evolve in remarkable ways.
Virtual Attendance information and link provided upon RSVP confirmation.
For more information, contact Dr. Candice Roberts.
The Power of a Line: LGBTQ+ Resource Center Book Talk by Dennis Tyler, Ph.D.
Thursday, February 24, 2022
About Dennis Tyler, Ph.D.
Dennis Tyler, Ph.D., has published work on African American literature and culture, disability studies, performance studies, and popular culture, and his essays and reviews have appeared in African American Review, Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, Gender: Space, The Feminist Wire, Oxford Bibliographies, American Literary History Online Review, and elsewhere. His first book, Disabilities of Color, is forthcoming from New York University Press.
His work has been recognized with grants and fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Woodrow Wilson Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and the University of Virginia’s Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies. He has taught courses on Oprah’s Book Club, African American autobiography, Black disability studies, Black women novelists, and the First Amendment right to protest.
Donate to the LGBTQ+ Center
Please be sure to select "St. John's LGBTQ+ Center" from the Designation drop down menu to ensure your gift directly supports the LGBTQ+ Center.
For Students
Inclusive Courses
These inclusive courses on Gender and Sexuality are offered by the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Interdisciplinary Minor.
Fall 2022 Courses
Spectrum
Spectrum is St. John’s University’s student-run LGBTQ+ organization. Spectrum strives to strengthen, foster, and affirm an inclusive, welcoming academic and campus environment for all students regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression for the purpose of upholding our University’s Catholic, Vincentian, and Metropolitan mission..
About Spectrum
Gender-Affirming Housing
The Office of Residence Life offers students the opportunity to live in gender-affirming housing on campus.
About Gender-Inclusive Housing
Preferred Name Policy
St. John's University enables students to use a Preferred Name where possible in the course of University business and education.
About the Preferred Name Policy
All Gender and ADA Restroom Map
For information on all gender and ADA restrooms throughout campus, please visit the All Gender and ADA Restroom Map. Note that you can find specific information on each restroom’s location by clicking on the map’s person icons.
All Gender and ADA Restroom MapAccomplishments
- Formed a 15-person committee consisting of graduate and undergraduate students, staff, administrators, and faculty representing the Queens and Staten Island, NY, campuses. Updated and integrated St. John’s web presence (e.g., Human Resources employee page, SPECTRUM Queens page, and SPECTRUM Staten Island page. We also created a LGBTQIA+ resource page.
- Meet regularly with students on the Queens and Staten Island campuses to discuss concerns
- Formed an employee resource group
- Integrated LGBTQ+ resources on the Academic Center for Equity and Inclusion, Office of Multicultural Affairs, and Inclusivity Resource Center (Staten Island and Queens) webpages
- OEI partnered with Transgender Training Institute for Climate Survey
- Safe Zone program curriculum revamped and implemented in the Fall of 2021
- All-gender bathrooms mapped on Queens and State Island campuses. The Manhattan campus has no single stall bathrooms.
- The Health Sciences Center, which is scheduled to be completed in 2024, will have all-gender bathrooms.
- Symposium, “Queer, Trans, and…,” expected to be held in the spring
- Working with WGSS to generate list of courses related to LGBTQ+ content/studies/theory
- Worked with a coalition of students, staff, administrators, and faculty to get SJU to include Gender-Affirming Housing
Determine ways to support faculty by incorporating more inclusive practices, especially for gender and sexual minorities (GSM).
Partner to develop and/or deliver trainings and offer resources.
Build partnerships with peer institutions in and around Queens, working with local LGBTQIA+ affirming centers and organizations.
Work to identify, revise, and/or dismantle oppressive policies and practices impacting gender and sexual minority students, employees, and visitors.
Host symposiums and compile or create engagement opportunities for the internal/external community.
Incorporate climate surveys and other data to assist the institution and units of the institution to identify and improve the inclusion, safety, and satisfaction of GSM students, employees, and guests.