Capturing San Francisco Energy in Eau Claire
I have been back in Eau Claire for nearly a month now, and looking back, the time in San Francisco almost feels like a dream. Being back in a college dorm in the middle of summer feels like living in a ghost town compared to how full and alive San Francisco felt.
The culture shock of the city didn’t quite hit me until I had made it back; being there, I could recognize that the abundance of rainbow flags and the sheer amount of people was new, but it felt natural in a way that I didn’t realize at the time. Coming back to Wisconsin, especially to my rural hometown, I was already missing the ease with which queer culture thrived in the city. Getting ready to go out and having to limit my self-expression in order to stay safe highlighted how open San Francisco had felt, especially during Pride. Being surrounded by so many openly queer people of all ages had made me feel like I didn’t have to cut off parts of my identity to be respected, which is something I rarely feel back in Wisconsin — even in Eau Claire, as much of a liberal bubble as it is.
That feeling is something I always want to capture and cultivate as an RA on the Rainbow Floors, but it can be difficult. One of the reasons, I believe, is just the nature of the floors being majority Freshman. So many people coming into college — queer or otherwise — are still unsure in their sense of self, and that insecurity is often projected outwards in ways that hurt others, intentionally or not. Many are also simply not yet mature enough to deal with the complex relationship dynamics that arise when a group of fresh young adults are left to their own devices for perhaps the first time in their lives. I have seen too often students who come to Eau Claire excited to find a queer community for the first time only to be faced with the same social exclusion couched in a new language.
The size of the community, I believe, is another factor in why it’s so hard to capture the culture of San Francisco on our floors. The queer community here, while perhaps larger than those of the rural areas that many students are coming from, is still a small world. As an RA, I have heard from residents who feel that they have to present or behave a certain way to fit in with a friend group for fear that they will be unable to find another. All people have troubles like these, but the issue is magnified with young queer students who already feel so lacking in allies, and are scared that if they can’t be friends with everyone they meet on the Rainbow Floors or in the Bridge, they will be shut out of the community completely. In a city as large as San Francisco, this would be less of an issue. The sheer size and variety within the city leaves room for individuals to not connect, or to even dislike each other, and to still find their place within either the greater queer community or their own smaller circles.
As I said, I want queer students in Eau Claire to be able to feel the freedom that San Francisco offers, but an environment like that doesn’t just spring up out of nowhere, it has to be consciously created. We have to be proactive in combating the unique challenges that come with fostering such opportunities here, and I think that a large part of that is us, those of us who have more experience and understanding of the wider circumstances, communicating this ideal to incoming students. They have to know both that it’s possible to have a supportive environment, but also that they, as part of the community, bear part of the responsibility for making it so.
As the new year starts, and Rainbow Floor LLC students begin to arrive early, I am in a unique position as an RA to be able to establish this message directly through my interactions with residents, but I believe that other queer students should be able to lead by example as well to help make our campus more welcoming.
