University of Redlands offers 'Queer Dictionary' to help students understand 'queer existence'

A private university in Southern California instructs students and staff to advocate for the LGBT community through resources such as a “queer dictionary” and “gender-inclusive housing.”

Members of the University of Redlands community have an extensive list of “LGBTQIA2S+ terminology” in its “Queer Dictionary,” includes terms such as “Skoliosexual,” “Omnigender,” “Neutrois” and “Multisexual.”

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Created in the early 2000s, the Queer Dictionary is intended to offer a “snapshot of queer existence.”

“The language around LGBTQIA2S+ identity and topics continues to evolve as culture shifts, understandings of gender and sexuality evolve, and more terminology is constructed that more accurately describes the LBGTQIA2S+ experience,” the web page notes.

The university also accommodates LGBT-identifying students with an “inclusive” housing policy.

The school web pages says that this policy is “not limited by the traditional understanding of gender as only male and female,” and allows for individuals to live together “regardless of biological sex” so as to create “a more inclusive campus climate and community.”

The policy is guided by values including “[r]espect for and affirmation of the student’s gender identity” and “[e]nhancing the student’s opportunity for success.”

Another Redlands program, Safe Space Allies, gives the entire school community the opportunity to attend “training and awareness campaigns” that “combat homophobia, heterosexism, transphobia, discrimination and harassment” relating to the LGBT community. The group advocates for sexual orientations like “queer and/or questioning,” “intersex,” “asexual” and “two-spirit.”

Once the program is completed, students receive an official flag decal with the logo and “are encouraged to post the decal on their residence hall door, in their offices or in other appropriate spaces to show their support for the LGBTQIA2S+ community,” according to the university website.

Students may also join Diversity in Action, a weeklong residency program that works to strengthen and expand the school’s commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). In order to apply, applicants must provide “a documented commitment to working for social change and justice,” according to a program web page. 

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All of these LGBT-based programs are run under the Office of Inclusion and Community, which strives “to welcome, educate, and empower a diverse community of learners for lives of meaning, impact, and joy” by promoting “diversity, social justice programming, and cultural pluralism.” 

Campus Reform has contacted the University of Redlands for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.