By GWEN MANLEY-MULLER
With distorted guitar tones permeating the dimly lit room, around 30 people huddled together to enjoy provided food and extremely loud music. In fact, upon entry, after giving a $5 donation, one of the two women at the door handed over a pair of ear plugs. It’s to be expected for this event, being a punk show — specifically, Ramapo College’s Queer Punk Show.
The event is held annually, hosted by Ramapo Music Club and co-sponsored by Ramapo Pride, this year falling on April 13. All proceeds went to the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, which is a legal aid organization serving the transgender community. This is one of many events on campus geared towards Ramapo’s LGBTQ community.
“I think it’s really important to have a space where LGBT people can be represented in punk,” Tina Wasielewski, Ramapo Music Club’s president and the founder of this event, said. She experienced difficulty finding bands willing to play the show inexplicably, other than perhaps that there really is limited representation as well as allies having fear over taking up a space that is not theirs in which to perform.
Though Ramapo has many queer clubs and events such as the Queer Punk Show show, its score on the Campus Pride Index, an “LGBTQ benchmarking tool for colleges and universities to create safer, more inclusive campus communities,” is mediocre at best due to its limited options for transgender students, a lack of training and committees to support LGBTQ students, and few places for students to self-identify.
While these are not actively working against students, it implies some sort of negligence that insinuates that LGBT students do not need to be seen. It’s a similar argument to the “I don’t see color” statement often used by people who are trying not to appear racist, but are ignoring the larger issues, observers say.
Fin Lumino, treasurer of Pride, says that while Ramapo has resources available, there are flaws within the system. They mentioned that students must have their legal names on their Ramapo identification cards, even if that is not the name they use. For many trans students, their “deadname,” that is, their name used before socially transitioning, can be triggering. Lumino said even for the mailroom, students must have packages sent to that legal name to match their ID. This can be chalked up to technical issues that make it difficult to change names within the system.
“The registration program, Banner, needs to be updated. There’s stuff with IT… It’s frustrating because people high up don’t even know why this is such a problem,” they said.
Another example of an issue LGBTQ students face is that of housing. Students require a safe and supportive space for gender expression. Ramapo College is one of about 160 colleges in the US that offers gender inclusive housing which allows for students to live together “regardless of biological sex.” Even so, students must sign a contract that makes moving out difficult if the situation becomes hostile, though according to Lumino, this is beginning to change.
There are on-campus issues that still need a push for progress, but some emerging leaders are stepping up to the plate to make the college as inclusive as possible, bridging students from different groups to create a unified front.
Music and LGBT Interests Intersect
Pamela Martinez is one of the fresh faces at Ramapo championing queer representation and issues. Coming in fall of 2018 as a freshman music performance and production major, she started her career by diving head first into Ramapo’s music club, which has a large queer member population, and the Women’s Center that hosts many of the queer clubs on campus as well as being a safe, educational space. Martinez identifies as a lesbian and has been out since high school. She has also just been voted in as next year’s president for the Ramapo Music Club.
“The Women’s Center was really helpful in terms of educating everyone in different aspects in like what a healthy relationship is and just learning about your sexuality, identity, and acceptance. I think that’s something that even before coming to college I was still hesitant… You learn not only to accept yourself but how to navigate the real world,” Martinez said.
While Martinez, 18, personally feels Ramapo is a safe space for LGBT students and caters to them, she also recognizes that for this to be continued, students must suggest and organize events for each other, such as the popular Queer Punk Show.
Martinez helped organize this show, though she was unable to attend. The event was said to really be Wasielewski’s “baby,” but as Martinez is the next RMC president, she plans on continuing the tradition.
With the many clubs and resources on campus, Martinez suggested some discussion groups aimed at connecting the LGBT students. These include Between the Pi’s, a group for pansexual and bisexual students, inQlusive, a general queer discussion group, Violet, meant for queer women, Men4Men, a group for queer men, an LGBTQ peer mentor group, Transcend for trans and non-binary students, and finally, Ramapo Pride itself.
Martinez utilizes the Women’s Center for general discussions and a safe space to go on campus as a judgment-free zone and has made connections which will benefit her when she organizes next year’s Queer Punk Show, which she is currently tweaking to be more genre-inclusive to have even more reach for queer musicians not within the punk scene.
“There’s a good amount of discussion groups which help you navigate different questions or just difficult conversations that you wouldn’t really talk about with anyone… And they’re all confidential,” she said.
One of Martinez’s main forms of catharsis besides her involvement with peers is her music. She sings, plays piano, and plays a bit of guitar. Her songs often detail her experiences as a gay woman, inspired by some of her favorite artists like Now, Now and Tancred. Her experience in mixing and performing live music are pulled from the Ramapo Music Club open mic nights. She used this to perform a solo set at what used to be called the Indie Show and has since transformed into the RMC Music Fest.
Her hope is to normalize queerness within the music scene using openly gay lyrics and unabashedly being herself even in her public image. Initially, she had wanted to participate in the punk show, but settled on the Music Fest simply because she had more time to prepare and found it to fit her particular genre better.
On top of her involvement in the queer community and her active role in the music club, Martinez discussed a job opportunity in the Berrie Center she may get because of her experience with live sound mixing taught to her by the Ramapo Music Club sound technician e-board member Brian D’Agosta.
According to a study by the Human Rights Campaign, 26 percent of LGBT youth say their biggest problem stems from not being accepted by their family, something which Martinez knows about. Her relationship with her mother is strained, especially after entering a relationship with another woman which her mother discovered before Martinez felt ready to share. Though they do not often talk about it, her mother most recently brought it up after hearing the music she was creating, creating a more open dialogue for the time being.
While there are areas in which Ramapo can do better, the campus has been a safe haven for Martinez and other students who have less-than-accepting home situations. Events like Pridefest, which is essentially the school pride parade and features drag queens, music, and many activities give students a chance to express themselves openly and meet other queer students. Ramapo appears to give students a chance to celebrate their identities, but behind the scenes lacks support and doesn’t translate to other parts the campus.
For example, though there is training for public safety, they are not taught about respecting gender identity or expression. There is a lack of a committee dedicated to LGBT issues on campus, something seriously lacking on a campus with so many queer events. Though some students have qualms with Ramapo’s inclusiveness, Martinez thinks they’re headed in the right direction.
“I think Ramapo is doing pretty well in terms of resources for students,” she said.
Though there is room for improvement, the Women’s Center constantly strives to create even more opportunities and the queer community on Ramapo’s campus appears to be making an effort to grow their resources to make an even better overall experience.
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