The third floor of Thomas Hunter was mostly deserted on a late Friday evening, as was usual. Stepping out of the elevator, one might’ve been confused by the source of the mildly loud dance music floating through the empty hallway. It would have only taken a turn around the corner to see the silver glittering curtain covering the entrance of the LGBTQ Affinity Space, positioned cozily at the very end of the hall. It was a Queer Prom Night–in outer space.
Behind the glittering curtains, a different reality took shape: no lights except for a space projector, paper “planets” hanging from the ceiling, and a small but lively group of people dressed as if to reflect an interplanetary congregation.
“Oh, the theme was space?” said Joanna Ng, a studio art and human biology major. Ng didn’t get the memo about the dress code, but somehow her outfit was on theme regardless. “I feel like space kind of fits ‘cause I’m Queer and life is all about exploration. I feel like that’s what space is: extraterrestrial.”
Queer people bend the boundaries of what is considered normal and traditional by exploring spaces of sexuality and gender that an average person might not even consider. If Earth is to represent heteronormative society, then perhaps Queer people are the extraterrestrials from outer space.
For some, a Friday night at Hunter might have been the busiest time of the week. Natasha Milton, a psychology major and a culture commissioner at the Undergraduate Student Union, aimed to attend all five events happening on campus that day as if it were an Easter egg hunt. She was dressed for the sport.
“I threw on jeans I had on the floor and the biggest shirt I could find. Even though I had a social event I had to look nice for, I did not care! Who cares? It’s a nice outfit because it’s loose to dance in,” said Milton.
The event was the first of its kind at Hunter. Tanea Lunsford Lynx, the LGBTQ+ community space coordinator, wanted to give Queer students a chance to build community, meet outside of class, have an opportunity to dress up how they want and dance in a space without judgement. Even though a lot of the attendees have been to a prom before, none of them had heard of one that specifically centered the LGBTQ+ community.
“It’s the first time Hunter is having a Queer prom, and it’s also the first time that we will be having a Lavender Graduation next month,” said Lynx.
According to Lynx, a Lavender Graduation in late May will be a small graduation not only for LGBTQ+ seniors, but for all Queer Hunter students and their allies. The graduation will center on community appreciation, with a representative from each class getting the opportunity to give a speech to the graduating seniors. In addition, graduates will receive a lavender cord alongside Hunter’s purple, and everyone else will receive a special pin.
Lavender has a long history tied to the LGBTQ+ community. According to CNN, the color has been associated with lesbians and sapphics, dating back to the great Greek poet Sappho, but it has also encompassed homosexuality in general. Saying that someone had a “streak of lavender” was a subtle way to call them a homosexual, in a rather derogatory fashion.
During the McCarthy era, President Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450, urging a purge of homosexual men and women from the federal government, effectively beginning what is now known as the “Lavender Scare”. As a result, around 5,000 federal agency employees lost their jobs due to their sexuality or the suspicion around it.
Jumping forward to 1969, lavender became a color of gay empowerment. From lavender sashes distributed to commemorate the Stonewall riots to the “Lavender Menace”, a group of lesbian feminists that started a countermovement against mainstream feminism that sought to suppress them. Lavender continues to evolve within the Queer community as a color of remembrance and progress.
Lynx was one of the few dressed precisely on theme. They wore a glittering net dress on top of a yellow slip dress, with a green mock turtleneck under for extra warmth. With a matching set of yellow boots and elaborate eye makeup, Lynx added to the spacey atmosphere.
“I decided on this outfit because I didn’t get to wear it to my prom. When I was in high school, I had to wear something that my family thought was acceptable, and I had to go with a boy. I didn’t feel like myself,” said Lynx.
Regardless of whether the attendees were on theme or not, the event provided them with something perhaps they hadn’t experienced before: to dance freely in clothes that make them comfortable in who they are, surrounded by like-minded people and friends, all openly Queer.
