Mission
The mission of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual Resource Center (LGBTQIA Resource Center) is to provide an open, safe, inclusive space and community that is committed to a continued process of understanding and challenging all forms of oppression primarily focusing on underrepresented orientations and expressions of one’s sex, gender and sexuality. The LGBTQIA Resource Center is a dynamic, responsive and collaborative organization that serves UC Davis and the surrounding region by providing a growing spectrum of programs, resources, outreach and advocacy.
Vision
Our vision for the LGBTQIA Resource Center is a space where students, staff, faculty and community members from all sexes, gender identities, gender expressions and orientations* are welcomed and celebrated. We envision a space where the diverse LGBTQIA+ community can find healing, connection, self-exploration and education. We envision an ever-responsive space and staff that are open to feedback and change. Our vision for the LGBTQIA Resource Center is a space that challenges oppression in its many forms including- ableism, ageism, allosexism, cissexism, classism, heterosexism, monosexism, nationalism/isolationism, racism, religious oppression, sexism, sizeism, and trans oppression/transmisogyny. We envision a center that not only liberates us from these systems, but does so collaboratively with other community members, resource centers and campus communities, in order to develop systems of care and liberation.
We envision a space that is filled with the sounds of joy, laughter, and conversation. A community that sees critical dialogue and feedback as an opportunity for positive change and growth. An environment that showcases art from the community, making visible our diversity and affirming the beauty in it. Our staff is committed to centering love in the work that we do in order to invite each person to be completely themselves.
Inherent in our understanding of this vision is that it is as much about the striving toward as it is about the arriving at. We are striving toward a place of collective transformation and liberation and we recognize that in our journey we must be guided by our values of intersectionality, critical love, interdependence, affirmation & agency, and dynamic adaptation. While our work will never be complete, it is the path we take to get there that inspires and motivates us to continue in our work.
*We intentionally use the word orientations to encompass all sexual, non-sexual, romantic and non-romantic orientations. Orientations can be fluid at various points in one’s life.
Values
Intersectionality
Our approach to fighting against the oppression of LGBTQIA+ people will always include an examination and addressing of all forms of oppression. Our practices will be informed by the understanding that community members who hold multiple marginalized identities are exponentially impacted by multiple systems of oppression.
Critical Love
We will engage in our work utilizing a love ethic informed by bell hooks’ definition of love as the extension of one’s self and actions in order to nurture the holistic growth of another and the interconnectedness between us. We understand that this love ethic will require both compassion and accountability, challenge and support.
Interdependence
We recognize that we each bring different strengths and experiences to collectively tackle complex problems. Our practices will be informed by an understanding of disability and economic justice. We will engage in resource sharing and disrupt oppressive notions of professionalism, productivity, and individualism.
Affirmation & Agency
In the context of a world that has allowed little space for many of us to exist, we will foster a space where each of us is empowered to fully exist as complex, multifaceted and whole individuals.
Dynamic Adaptation
We will be open to changing the way we think and work as there are changes in our communities’ needs and desires. “Change is a constant condition of this universe, [therefore] it becomes important that we learn to be in right relationship with change.” -adrienne maree brown
*Please note that the foundation of our core values is primarily attributed to the work of Black, Indigenous and Disability Justice Advocates.