The leadership of Queer Union decided not to hold the annual “QU” dance this year due to their feeling that the dance reflected badly on the organization and the queer community. They said that students have lost track of the dance’s original purpose: to create a safe and fun space for Macalester’s queer community.

“QU had become a drunken festival,” Queer Union co-chair Eliza Schrader ’05 said. Last year, on the night of the dance, three students were taken to the hospital with alcohol poisoning.

Schrader also said that the dance had grown too sexually charged.

“[Queer students were portrayed as] overly sexualized and deviant…it was a celebration of lewdness,” Schrader said. “[The dance had become] heterosexual men flaunting their heterosexuality in a supposedly queer space…it can be offensive.”

Schrader said that student behavior at the dance contradicted the dance’s original purpose. “The general idea was that [the dance] was a space for queer and questioning people to experiment…a fun space to build community and meet people,” she said. “The co-chairs decided to discontinue [the QU dance] because it didn’t represent what the Queer Union is about.

“[Not holding the dance] was more about the impact of the dance, the results of the dance, and the reflection on its organizers,” she added.

Last year, the Queer Union attempted to distance itself from the dance by renaming the event “Homo-coming.”

This year, Schrader and Graham Turner ’07, one of her co-chairs, said they hope not holding the QU dance will allow the organization to focus on other events. “We want the organization [to go in] more positive and active directions,” Schrader said. “There have been a lot of changes within the organization…We have new leadership and a new mission statement.”

“We’re planning a lot of events focused on educating the Macalester community,” Turner said. On Nov. 13, QU will host its annual Cabaret, a performance space for fun, serious, and political acts for students of all genders and sexual identities.

In addition to Schrader and Turner, Josephine Williams ’06 and Rita Van Allen ’06 are also QU co-chairs.

Dean of Students Laurie Hamre and Assistant Director of Campus Programs Tara Stormoen said that the administration was not involved in the decision not to hold the dance. Hamre said that the dance has tended to have a cyclic presence on campus. “Every few years the organizers of the dance decide not to plan the dance [because they see that it has become] more of a party then a message, but it keeps coming back,” she said.

“Overall behavior was not out of hand,” Hamre said. “A small percentage of students [drank] more than they could handle and ended up ruining it for everyone,” she said of last year’s dance.

Stormoen said she was relieved that organizers of QU decided not to hold the dance. However, she added that she wanted to encourage dialogue. “I want members of our community to continue the conversations surrounding this dance, how we can create safe spaces, and on what new traditions can be created,” she said.

Hamre said that she agreed with Queer Union’s leadership that the dance did not serve the purposes of the organization. “It’s easy for students who don’t give it a lot of thought to be disrespectful,” Hamre said. “Students don’t get that it’s about QU…the dance is treated as a costume ball without realizing that it’s disrespectful.”

Stormoen, Hamre, Turner, and Schrader all said that they hope the Gender Bender dance, held for the first time last spring, will continue to be a fun atmosphere where queer and questioning students can meet and build community. Gender Bender was held in the Kagin Ballroom shortly before Easter break and had a dress code similar to the QU dance. “[Last spring,] there were great strides taken to create a safer space for students to explore issues related to gender and sexual orientation,” Stormoen said.

“[At the Gender Bender dance, queer issues] were taken more seriously, the dance was seen as more ally focused and less of a spectacle,” Schrader said. “The dress was less mocking; people wearing funky outfits [instead of] making fun of someone’s gender deviant presentation.”

The decision not to plan the dance did not sit well with many students.

“If [Queer Union] felt students were being disrespectful, maybe they should have been clearer about their expectations for behavior at the dance,” Ashley DeMinck ’07 said. “We weren’t trying to be disrespectful by dressing the way we did, that’s just what we thought we were supposed to do. QU should try to use the dance as a way to communicate with the campus instead of just canceling it,”

“I’m not gay, so I don’t think I can totally say what the dance did or didn’t represent, but I saw it as a coming together of Macalester community,” Sara Gold ’07 said. “It was a fun night for everyone.”

Schrader said she agrees that more focus should have been placed on queer issues at the dance itself. She added that performances and decorations could have been used to accomplish that focus.