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But some LGBTQ students say it is not inclusive

The University of Florida student government now runs a “Gender and Sexuality Protection” unit.

“Our goal is to combat gender and sexuality inequality through education and empathy while also providing support to people of all identities,” an Instagram post states. “In this way, we want to protect UF students from feeling like they do not belong.”

Some LGBTQ students already feel left out by the new agency.

“They call themselves a protection agency, but have made no explicit reference to what we as queer people are being protected from,” a student named Syd Engstrom told the Alligator.

“There was a vague allusion to combating gender inequality, but inequality is perpetuated by the individuals, usually the state government or the Board of Trustees at UF, and there’s been no mention of that,” Engstrom told the student newspaper. Engstrom uses “they” pronouns, according to the Alligator.

“Engstrom also said the agency’s social media posts do not explicitly mention certain queer groups. GASP’s Instagram has no direct mention of the dangers that homophobia and transphobia pose to the queer community,” the campus newspaper reported.

Student Erin Huguenin also had complaints.

The group defines “gender” as “a person’s own sense of being male, female, or something else entirely.”

This upsets Huguenin.

“To her, the phrasing came off as condescending and out-of-touch, she said,” the campus newspaper reported.

Huguenin had other objections:

“There’s already a lot of organizations on campus for women [and] for queer students,” she said. “This just seems like they’re not coming at it from a perspective of actually furthering the cause and more so it just seems like a resume builder.”

Huguenin said if GASP wants to make a positive change, it should challenge state laws pertaining to higher education or stand up for queer students through actions like protests.

She views GASP as an internal effort of SG to appear more inclusive and accepting without “having to do anything subversive.”

“What we need to be protected from, frankly, is the people that these organizers are friends with,” she said.
Student Riley Towbin will lead the agency.

“I just want to make sure that everyone knows that no matter how they look and no matter how they present themselves,” Towbin told the student newspaper. “They have a space for themselves in the queer community, even in spaces that aren’t necessarily considered queer.”

While the public university in Gainesville has rolled back DEI hiring, it continues to offer niche, identity-based classes.

These classes include “data feminisms” and “Early LGBTQ Literatures,” as previously reported by The College Fix.

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