VALENTINE'S SPEED DATING

Speed daters on a group date <3

<3~~~~~~~~~~~~<3

While some people spent the Sunday before Valentine’s Day praying for a beau, others on campus decided to take their love into their own hands. XO Magazine and the Queer Alliance teamed up to host a queer speed-dating event on February 12th, with almost 30 participants. Though the plethora of septum piercings and oat milk lattes on campus might confuse some straights into thinking LGBT love is just a head turn away for us queers, it can be quite difficult to find. According to Brown, only 24% of the undergraduate population identifies as queer. Pure statistics can make things pretty tough.

XO and QA members preparing to check in speed daters.

Love wasn’t the only reason to come to the event. Many people not even looking for a last-minute Valentine’s Day date also attended to find more queer friends on campus. Pairs were chosen based on important compatibility factors such as “personal style icons” and “favorite comfort media”. We all know a Wolf of Wall Street and Lady Bird pairing is doomed from the start. 

After going on five quick one-on-one dates and three big group dates, participants were asked to put down the names of people they wanted to be in contact with again. If both people put down each other’s names, they were sent an email confirming they matched with the contact information of the other. Although no (known) proposals have resulted from the event, it’s in this humble event co-coordinator’s opinion this was a rousing success for the 30 participants that found possible love and friendship.

Clean up! Post-event glow is accompanied by a thorough clean of our LGBTQ center, Stonewall House.

AUTHOR: Machaela Cruz is a freshman at Brown from Springfield, Massachusetts. She’s probably somewhere drinking kombucha and reading wolfstar fanfics.