Queer female students met on the Plaza of the Americas to talk about mental health and workplace issues facing them Friday.
About 30 students ate Krishna Lunch as they attended the first Lesbians on the Lawn event of the semester. The weekly event, run by UF’s Pride Student Union and LGBT Affairs, started Fall 2014 to allow queer women to meet and talk.
The students sat on blankets in front of Smathers library. PSU and LGBT Affairs could only hold the event six times last semester because of weather and scheduling problems, said Tessa Arthur, a senior student ambassador for LGBT Affairs.
Arthur said she wanted to bring Lesbians on the Lawn back this semester.
“I noticed the severe lack of queer women-only spaces,” the 21-year-old UF marketing junior said. “I didn’t feel like UF had an environment that could foster our identities and grant us the opportunity to meet other queer women like us.”
Macarena Baigorria, 23, said she ate Krishna Lunch and talked with others to help her find friendship and support among other queer women.
“I love that it is just a space to relax and meet new people,” the UF mechanical engineering graduate student said. “I had great conversations this past Friday, and I was able to learn a lot from the other women that were there.”
