Queer Intro day | 2024

Over the past year, as part of the Study Climate program, a survey was conducted on the needs of LGBT+ students at TU Delft. This research showed, among other things, that many queer students need a safe environment to meet other LGBT+ people. Despite the university's efforts, LHBTI+ students do not always feel welcome and sometimes find it difficult to make friends where they can be completely themselves. From this came the idea for the Queer Intro, an introductory day for upcomming students, similar to the Ladies Intro, but aimed at queer students. The goal of this event was to give queer students some extra possibilities to connect before they will start their studies, and already show them around in Delft. Therefore, we anticipate that they will feel more at home in TU Delft.

There were initial questions as to whether such a day was necessary and whether it would not lead to further separation from the so-called "norm student”-group. After discussion, however, we saw the great value in providing an opportunity for this group to meet and thus create an inclusive study environment. The day was organized with six enthusiastic volunteers, who themselves would have liked to experience such a day in their first year.

On the day itself, the twenty-five participants were welcomed with a communal lunch and an opening presentation on the LGBT+ community in Delft. During the opening presentation, the participants already had the chance to aks all their questions about being openly queer in Delft. This resulted in a very safe and open conversation.

We hosted some light spectrum games to get to know each other in the beginning of the programme. This broke the ice and made connections and conversations easier for the rest of the day.

They then visited various queer hotspots in Delft and participated in activities such as laser gaming, abseiling and a scavenger hunt. The day ended with a communal dinner and a final party with a drag show.

Highlights

Some highlights from the day:

• All participants indicated that during the day they met other students with whom they want to keep in touch when they come to study in Delft.

• Participants who are "not yet out of the closet" at home indicated that it was very valuable to be in an environment with other queer students; this increased their sense of belonging, they felt welcome.

• Several students made connections with queer houses for the OWee.

• Prospective freshmen who could not attend appreciated the initiative and thought it was positive that TU Delft organizes a Queer Intro.

• All students got acquainted with various queer-friendly associations, which lowers the threshold to seek out these places on their own later.

What's Next?

• The involved associations that helped organize this year have expressed interest in participating again next year. Other associations have also offered their help for a future edition. In cooperation with the OWee board, it would be relatively easy to organize a similar day again.

• For a next edition, it is important to start the promotion earlier, so that we can already advertise before the participants are busy with their final exams. For example, this could already be done on open days.

• In addition, it would be valuable to organize the day for prospective freshmen and current students. Several people indicated that in their first year of study they did not yet know that they were queer and that they would have enjoyed a day like this later as well.

• In addition to this, of course, we continue to work on the inclusion of this group throughout the year. See, for example, the toolkit for inclusion of queer students and the article on Purple Friday.