Last month, Concord Academy’s three queer affinity groups, Q2 (Queer and Questioning), TAG (Transgener Affinity Group), and QPOC (Queer People of Color), respectively) worked in collaboration with the Community and Equity office to organize a collection of events that centered queer joy at CA. In addition to their regular meetings, the co-heads organized a joint affinity group meeting, which was equally attended by both students and faculty. They hosted a queer affinity space movie night where they watched But I’m A Cheerleader, a satire about the traumas of conversion therapy that has since become a cult classic. Finally, the co-heads put together a quad movie night for the entire school, complete with a 25-foot inflatable screen, popcorn machine, and plethora of candy and snacks. There they projected Bottoms, a comedy that premiered in the summer of 2023.
Cameron Levesque ’25, one of the co-heads of Q2, said that the coheads landed on Bottoms because of its modern queer representation, normalization of queer people in high school, and the fact that while a character's sexuality was a large aspect of the movie, it was not the focus of the plot. Cameron also mentioned that he hoped the movie’s recency and edginess would draw more people to the event, both queer and non-queer.
CA is not in session during June, when Pride Month is celebrated nationally, so the co-heads of the three groups were passionate about using this month to celebrate the queer community at and beyond CA. They affectionately dubbed the month “Gaypril” or “LGBTQIApril.” The coheads wanted to highlight multiple forms of queer media, curating a playlist of music from queer artists and providing lists and suggestions of queer movies, documentaries, and series to watch. Additionally, they composed a list of queer-owned businesses in the Boston area to support throughout the year. As the co-heads wrote in a note to CA, “Pride started out as a protest, and still is a protest.” They wanted this month to educate the community and highlight queer voices, past and present. Furthermore, they wanted to engage the whole community in positive programming to emphasize the joys of being queer.
The coheads were successful in this mission and their organization of LGBTQIApril, bringing the CA community together to uplift queer voices and celebrate the community in a jubilant and thoughtful way.