“It acknowledges that there are a lot more queer people than just gay white guys,” Chen says. “Even if someone is queer-identifying, that’s not their entire identity.”

The new mission statement also includes goals for expansion and collaboration, stating that the QSA “seeks to promote community awareness of and action on the social, socioeconomic, political, educational, and cultural issues surrounding queer identities and sexualities.”

Chan and Garland say they added the words “action” and “socioeconomic” to stress their goal to engage in more political activism involving a wider range of the Harvard community.

Political Co-Chairs Emma Wang ’12 and Lucy C. O’Leary ’12 have developed three new positions and several projects geared toward achieving greater political action. The service chair will work with the Phillips Brooks House Association in the first collaboration between the two groups to create a queer-specific service program in the Boston area.

The campaign coordination chair will organize collaborative projects with other campus groups, and the media and outreach chair will publicize ongoing political events to QSA members.

“The emphasis on outreach the political committee is undertaking reflects a shift in focus for the whole organization,” Wang says.

In addition to creating new positions, the political committee is also working on collaborative projects with other student groups. They are planning Women’s Week with the Radcliffe Union of Students in March and movie screenings with different cultural groups. They are also coordinating this weekend’s IvyQ conference for Ivy League LGBT activists and a progressive soiree with the Harvard Dems later this month.

EXPANDING MEMBER INVOLVEMENT

In keeping with their new political and collaborative goals, QSA is also seeking to increase grassroots activism within the organization.

The final clause of the new statement emphasizes the importance of “membership-driven events and campaigns in collaboration with other groups, organizations, and institutions.”

Chan says that the words “membership-driven” stress a drive for the organization to undertake its efforts from the bottom up rather than the top down.

QSA member Bradley L. Craig ’13 says that the emphasis on membership will help the organization become more adaptive to a variety of projects. The objective is to have membership-driven action based on the different members’ interests, from transgender issues to gender neutral housing.

“I think the new structure enables members to dictate the focus and the motivation behind things that the board does, and that is reflective of the fact that the queer community as a whole does not have a concrete set of needs and concerns,” Craig says.

LOOKING FORWARD

Ryan R. Thoreson ’07, former co-chair of QSA (then known as BGLTSA) and currently on the board of the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus, says that the new mission statement’s emphasis on inclusivity and collaboration is a step in the right direction for queer activism at Harvard and beyond.