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Julie Morris saw a notice three years ago seeking staff and board members for the 203 Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity on the University of New Brunswick’s (UNB) Fredericton campus.

“I was new at UNB, new in Fredericton, and it seemed like a good opportunity to get involved with the community, especially as a queer person myself, and not having any connections,” said Morris, a collections analysis and bibliometrics librarian, and doctoral student in interdisciplinary studies.

That led to Morris becoming the faculty co-chair of the 203 Centre, named after its room number in the Student Union Building.

“It seemed like a good opportunity, and it’s been great,” Morris said.

Founded in 2018 as a drop-in space for 2SLGBTQIA+ students, the student-led 203 Centre has since expanded its offerings.

“We hold social events on campus and within the community. We do advocacy work, we share resources, we provide things like free sexual barriers and menstrual products, and we distribute gender-affirming clothing as well,” said Morris.

Shasta Carroll (BBA’24), a former student co-chair, got free chest binders for students from gc2b. A clothing swap was held with QT Fatties, and Carroll used clothes from that event to start the Gender-Affirming Closet.

“We just put it up in April, so we haven’t had a chance for people to come to it yet. People can try things on, anything that makes them feel good and gender-euphoric, and take it home. We also take donations of gently used clothing to pass on to students who might be in need,” said Morris.

The 203 Centre emphasizes intersectionality and building a community that recognizes students’ multiple identity markers.

“We had events with the UNB International Students’ Society because we particularly want to emphasize that this is a space for everyone, and we recognize the intersectionalities that exist between queer and trans students and make them feel welcome,” Morris said.

“Queer and trans international students accessing our space are sometimes in precarious positions when accessing health care and other services. We need to support them because they’re an important part of our community,” they said.

Morris said the 203 Centre has a “great relationship” with some faculties, which asked for its feedback on how to make policies and operations more inclusive to 2SLGBTQIA+ students.

“It could be anything from scholarships to how we engage with students in the classroom. How do we make them feel safe?” said Morris.

“We do joyful things, and we also do advocacy work. We try to address the reality of our community’s lives and needs.”

Part of doing joyful things is connecting through art. One of the 203 Centre’s recent projects was the exhibition Queer Joy Now! A Dusting off of Histories.

Melissa Keehn, a doctoral candidate in education and former high school teacher, got involved with the exhibition through her research assistantship at the 203 Centre and other creative art-based events aimed at the campus 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

“During a meeting, someone brought up that it would be amazing to try to gather in one place a broad and expansive history of queer and trans students across the campuses,” she said.

“The vision of a travelling exhibition came up. We wanted to gather all this information stored in various places and the oral histories of students and faculty who have graduated. We put it into a series of 10 panels that can be displayed accessibly. People could come and interact with it and explore this history.”

Some of the memories go back to the 1970s.

“This history has already been gathered. A couple of master’s theses have looked at this, and the library archives have information about student activism, organizing and socializing on campus,” said Keehn.

The goal was to express queer joy as a means of resisting violence.

The exhibition opened in February at the Harriet Irving Library with a poetry reading. The exhibition incorporated these poems. The panels were exhibited later at NBCC Fredericton, UNB Saint John, and the Fredericton Public Library before returning to the Harriet Irving Library in July, where it remains.

The Queer Heritage Initiative of New Brunswick (QHINB), of which Morris is a board member, will eventually store the posters.

Morris said 2SLGBTQIA+ people must own the telling of their histories.

“When some think about the history of queer and trans people, it’s always doom and gloom, but there is so much joy, so much happiness, and so much fun that goes into the events that we plan and the way that we relate to each other that we want to capture that too,” they said.

Keehn said embracing joy through such projects is essential for building community.

“Space is given for folks to come together and meet and gather and generate queer joy and community, which is a big part of the 203 Centre,” she said.

“There is so much that is generated within the making of something. It brings people together, gives us something to talk about, and does it within the community,” said Keehn, who hopes the 203 Centre can create a zine.

Morris said the 203 Centre has also worked and celebrated with other area 2SLGBTQIA+ groups.

“We support each other and share a lot of knowledge between groups. We couldn’t survive without our community,” said Morris.

Morris said volunteers, including campus 2SLGBTQIA+ allies, are needed to keep the 203 Centre open.

“We need people taking an hour shift once a week to be in the space physically to keep it open, joining the board, and coming to events and supporting what we are doing,” said Morris.

“If anyone wants to volunteer, consider this a call-out. Everyone is welcome to help make the 203 Centre successful,” said Morris.

Photo: Julie Morris and Melissa Keehn stand next to clothing which form part of the Gender-Affirming Closet at the 203 Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity in the Student Union Building on the University of New Brunswick’s Fredericton campus. The 203 Centre provides supportive space and activities to the campus 2SLGBTQIA+ community.