About the Center for Gender + Sexualities

Student activists created the Women’s Resource Center (WRC) in 1983. Its earliest role was to address the needs of women at Hamline, largely through educating the campus community about issues related to women's rights.

For over 40 years, the WRC's student, staff, and faculty leadership worked tirelessly toward gender equity. The WRC has facilitated educational programming and co-curricular activities on gender-based issues; offers service-learning projects, internships, and leadership experiences to students; collaborates with on- and off-campus organizations to enrich the Hamline community; and provides a range of resources and supplies to help students meet their basic needs.

Past WRC activities included:

• Reading and discussion groups
• Film screenings
• Community service projects
• Guest speakers
• Garment fundraisers and donation drives
• Women's History Month celebrations
• Special events, including Take Back the Campus
• Collaborating with SALD on the Women’s Leadership Retreat
• Pushing a campus dialogue on Period Poverty and creating a system change to offer menstrual supplies throughout campus in collaboration with HUSC.
• Increasing the dialogue about the need for students to be able to access affordable Emergency Contraception.

Hamline University has a rich LGBTQIA+ history. Mariah Timm, a previous Sexuality and Gender Diversity Programs intern, researched Hamline’s queer history and created the timeline below to honor the community members who fought for their rights, as well as the rights and privileges we enjoy today, so that we may remember their efforts and do the same for the people who come after us.

As it is important to continue to document Hamline’s ongoing queer story, Timm has extended an invitation to those who would like to continue this work:

“Hamline’s queer history is rich. Through adversity, our community has held strong and cared for one another. I am not a historian, nor someone who is tied to academia, but I am a queer person that feels revived in discovering and learning about queer ancestors.

We’ve just scratched the surface of documenting the arc of Hamline’s queer story, and though, unfortunately, I am unable to continue this work, I would love to see this project live on.

If any students, faculty, staff, or community members want to help contribute to our work, please email queer@hamline.edu.”

Over the past several years, there has been an increased attention to the names of our former spaces, in particular the Women’s Resource Center, as students have advocated for a name that more accurately reflects our already inclusive and intersectional work. The name Center for Gender + Sexualities was selected based on feedback from focus groups of Hamline students, faculty, and staff, as well as in consultation with experts on gender and sexuality programs across the nation.

Following the lead of queer communities, the Center has adapted the plus sign to signify there are numerous ways individuals can identify and still belong. The plus also acknowledges the intersections of our identities: Serving gender and sexuality cannot happen without also recognizing that race, class, disability, body size, religion, and other aspects of our identities add to, and change, our experiences in the world.