{"id":7509,"date":"2025-05-08T11:30:40","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T15:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=7509"},"modified":"2025-05-08T11:30:40","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T15:30:40","slug":"the-first-ever-queer-prom-at-hunter-in-outer-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2025\/05\/the-first-ever-queer-prom-at-hunter-in-outer-space\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Ever Queer Prom at Hunter\u2013in Outer Space!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The entrance to the LGBTQ Affinity Space, decorated for the Queer Prom in Outer Space event. (Anastasiia Poleva) April 25, 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The third floor of Thomas Hunter was mostly deserted on a late Friday evening, as was usual. Stepping out of the elevator, one might\u2019ve 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\u2013in outer space.<\/p>\n

Behind the glittering curtains, a different reality took shape: no lights except for a space projector, paper \u201cplanets\u201d hanging from the ceiling, and a small but lively group of people dressed as if to reflect an interplanetary congregation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, the theme was space?\u201d said Joanna Ng, a studio art and human biology major. Ng didn\u2019t get the memo about the dress code, but somehow her outfit was on theme regardless. \u201cI feel like space kind of fits \u2018cause I\u2019m Queer and life is all about exploration. I feel like that\u2019s what space is: extraterrestrial.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Joanna Ng posed in front of a makeshift space wall wearing a gothic, lacy outfit. (Anastasiia Poleva) April 25, 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u2019s a nice outfit because it\u2019s loose to dance in,\u201d said Milton.<\/p>\n

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Natasha Milton posed in her Pittsburgh Football shirt in front of a space wall. (Anastasiia Poleva) April 25, 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the first time Hunter is having a Queer prom, and it\u2019s also the first time that we will be having a Lavender Graduation next month,\u201d said Lynx.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Lynx, a Lavender Graduation<\/a> 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\u2019s purple, and everyone else will receive a special pin.<\/p>\n

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Decorations for the Queer Prom at the LGBTQ+ Affinity Space. (Anastasiia Poleva) April 25, 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lavender has a long history tied to the LGBTQ+ community. According to CNN<\/a>, 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 \u201cstreak of lavender\u201d was a subtle way to call them a homosexual, in a rather derogatory fashion.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cLavender Scare\u201d. As a result, around 5,000 federal agency employees lost their jobs due to their sexuality or the suspicion around it.<\/p>\n

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Tanea Lunsford Lynx posed in her outfit in front of the space wall. (Anastasiia Poleva) April 25, 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jumping forward to 1969, lavender became a color of gay empowerment. From lavender sashes distributed to commemorate the Stonewall riots to the \u201cLavender Menace\u201d, 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided on this outfit because I didn\u2019t 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\u2019t feel like myself,\u201d said Lynx.<\/p>\n

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Joanna Ng (left) dancing with her friend, Max Watkins (right). (Anastasiia Poleva) April 25, 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Regardless of whether the attendees were on theme or not, the event provided them with something perhaps they hadn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first ever Queer Prom at Hunter created a space for students to celebrate themselves and dress up in anything space related, or not. With a small but lively gathering, Queer Prom in Outer Space launched a tradition that will hopefully keep on for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":7515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,324],"tags":[697,696,695,573],"class_list":["post-7509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-student-life","tag-cuny-lgbtq","tag-huntercollegequeerprom","tag-queerprom","tag-lgbtq"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7509"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7538,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7509\/revisions\/7538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}