Peter Moosman is one person out of many that want all students to be seen.
Moosman recently went to Twitter to proclaim his new position as Salt Lake Community College’s “Captain Gay” — or more officially, the inaugural coordinator for the Gender and Sexuality Student Resource Center.
Hey Twitter fam,
I guess it’s that time I share with you that I got a new job. It’s a mouthful of a title, so you can just call me @SaltLakeCC’s Captain Gay. 😉 pic.twitter.com/AvJHx8xDNX— Peter Moosman (@petermoosman) August 28, 2019
Since graduating from SLCC in 2011, Moosman has had a storied history of promoting diversity across SLCC through his work with the Student Association, the Center for Health & Counseling, and the Student Life and Leadership Office. Now, Moosman is taking on the biggest task of his career: building the GSSRC from the ground up.
The GSSRC will focus on increasing community-wide awareness of policies affecting both current and future women and LGBTQ+ students at SLCC. The center will promote engagement in specialized college outreach, access to resources and retention strategies with, and for, women and LGBTQ+ students.
As a present-day openly gay man, Moosman reflects on his time as a student in the closet. He explains how a communal space, like the center he is now in charge of creating, could have helped him come to terms with his identity.
“Students will know that they are at an institution that values them and all their beautiful identities enough to fight for their success by providing them with the resources, programming, and space to be themselves,” says Moosman. “I want to advocate for them and with them on an institutional level to ensure that they feel like an essential part of this college.”
Moosman says the concept of a GSSRC has been in the works for over a decade. However, administrators didn’t give the green light until both the planned women and LGBTQ+ centers were combined into one space.
For students like Jessica Castro, the GSSRC means a great deal.
“I think it’s about time that [SLCC] did something to provide support to both its women and LGBTQ+ students,” says Castro. “[The GSSRC] will help fulfill both the physical and mental needs of the student community.”
The grand opening of the SLCC’s Gender and Sexuality Student Resource Center will be 1-3 p.m. Oct. 11 in the student forum (room 1-140) at South City Campus. The 11th is coincidentally both International Day of the Girl and National Coming Out Day.
