Prism Emerges as FCLC’s New LGBTQ+ Club
The club seeks to educate and provide a safe space for LGBTQ+ Students at Lincoln Center
PHOTOS COURTESY OF @PRISM.FORDHAM VIA INSTAGRAM, GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREW DRESSNER
May 4, 2021
The Rainbow Alliance, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC)’s LGBTQ+ club, has evolved into a new club. Now called Prism, the club is currently led by President Adah Unachukwu, FCLC ’23, along with a new E-Board.
Unachukwu believes that a new beginning for the club was needed to ensure that all LGBTQ+ students at Fordham felt comfortable coming together to learn more about the community and themselves. They decided to call the club Prism to reflect how prisms can refract light into so many colors, encompassing the diversity the club hopes to foster.
Polina Uzornikova, FCLC ’23, joined the club as secretary after seeing a post Unachukwu made gauging interest in reviving Fordham’s LGBTQ+ club. They felt that Fordham’s LGBTQ+ club needed a fresh start.
“The contemporary queer community is currently evolving at a very fast rate, with the discourse on gender and sexuality as prominent as it has ever been, and 1 in 6 Gen Z people identifying as LGBTQIA,” Uzornikova said. “Since our age group is at the spearhead of that generation, we felt like we needed to rebrand the club to make it more appealing and relevant to our peers.”
Uzornikova is interested in creating a safe space for queer Fordham students, including those who are beginning to explore their identity, and wants to educate students about the injustices against queer people around the world while also celebrating queer culture.
“It would be disappointing to not have a queer club at a school with such a large queer community,” Unachukwu said. “I was in a position to make sure the club was able to stay so I decided to assemble an E-Board and keep the club.”
So far, Prism has hosted a virtual screening of the movie “Disclosure,” which discussed transgender representation in Hollywood. They convene for general club meetings every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.
Conversations during meetings include how the pandemic has affected members’ identities and queer celebrity culture. On April 29, Prism hosted a screening of “Moonlight” with Fordham’s Black Student Alliance (BSA).
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Planned outings for the fall semester include a visit to Big Gay Ice Cream, a trip to the Leslie-Lohman Museum and a special Halloween trip to see “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Unachukwu hopes to have a majority of the club’s meetings in person next semester and wants to invite guest speakers to educate members about different topics and experiences.
