The UGBC Senate unanimously voted to change the name of the GLBTQ+ Leadership Council (GLC) to the Queer Leadership Council (QLC) during its meeting on Tuesday night.
“To be queer—to be different—is exactly what makes us powerful and makes us beautiful,” said H Edwards, QLC policy coordinator and MCAS ’26. “It’s what should be celebrated. Putting the word queer in our council’s name, I feel, really centers that emotion that we have.”
Edwards said the GLBTQ+ Leadership Council title perpetuated a centering on cisgender gay men within the LGBTQ+ community. It also emphasized different identity labels rather than unity, Edwards added.
“GLC, as the primary student group that exists for queer students at this campus, changing our name to Queer Leadership Council really pushes our mission … that we have to affirm students, accept students, and celebrate students of queer identities,” Edwards said.
Edwards also said the recent integration of LGBTQ+ resources into the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center signaled a shift in the future of queer resources at BC, making the QLC name change timely.
“It inaugurates a new era for Boston College to be a home for queer students,” Edwards said.
Edwards said that while the QLC has experienced significant “institutional tension” in past years, it hopes to change that dynamic and make BC more tangibly queer friendly.
“Everyone on our campus should feel that … the new atmosphere we’re trying to create is bound up with the atmosphere of the campus in general,” they said.
On the theme of queer resources, Edwards added that next week will be the QLC’s annual pride week, featuring 14 different events offering a range of resources, events, and free food.
“I hope everyone can find the time to come out and support us,” he said.
Later in the meeting, Ryan Milligan, Academic Affairs Committee chair and MCAS ’26, shared updates from a meeting he had with the University’s Provost Advisory Council regarding the Supreme Court’s summer ruling on affirmative action.
“Thirty-eight percent of the BC 2027 class identifies as AHANA+ and the provost sort of admitted that this decision will affect admissions going forward, especially for that group of students on campus,” Milligan said.
Despite this, Milligan said that BC’s Jesuit identity may give the University some leeway to maneuver amid the altered admissions process.
“There is sort of an ability for Boston College, as a Jesuit university, to use its Catholic social teaching values to sort of sidestep some of the implications of this ruling,” Miligan said. “Obviously, they still have to stay in line with what the court put down.”
