On the sixth floor of a residential building on the University of South Florida Tampa campus, things are quiet as students retreat to their rooms to study for their final exams.
WUSF is not disclosing the name of the residence hall, to protect the students who live here.
Student resident assistant Kabeer Trikka points out the pops of color splashed here and there in the form of pride flags and rainbow-colored stuffed animals, a stark contrast to the beige walls.
"The only agenda that we have here is to love each other, to respect each other, and make friends,” said Trikkha, a psychology major — and also nonbinary and queer.
"It's much more than just a place where we live together. It's a community. There's support resources, there's people that understand your struggles, it's more than just, ‘oh, here's where all of the gay people live.’ "Mykiah Perkins
They motion to a small library in the corner of the common area — a collective effort by students to provide queer-friendly literature to their peers.
They also show off a small room strewn with racks of clothing, shoes and accessories like purses.
"It's just clothing that people cannot buy if they have an identity that they haven't shared with their parents, per se, stuff like that ... and people just come in here and they can take whatever they need, leave whatever they don't want," Trikkha said.
Trikkah oversees a few dozen students who live on this floor. Another couple dozen students within the queer cohort — called Stonewall Suites — live in a second resident hall with a different RA.
The Stonewall Riots that inspired the name
The name comes from the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City, when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village. The riots served as a catalyst for the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world — and serve as the foundation for the pride events we now celebrate.
"I would not be living on campus if it wasn't for Stonewall Suites,” said Mars Rivera, an environmental engineering student.
They said they didn't want to play a "game of luck" when it came to who they roomed with their freshman year, so they applied to live there.
"I immediately knew that that's basically the only place where I know I would feel comfortable living in especially because at that time, I was starting to take testosterone."
Their friend, Mykiah Perkins, also lives in Stonewall. They emphasize the importance of "chosen family" in the queer community and said Stonewall gives them a ready-made network of friends.
"It's much more than just a place where we live together. It's a community. There's support resources, there's people that understand your struggles, it's more than just, ‘oh, here's where all of the gay people live.’ "
Stonewall hosts tons of events each semester, from queer-affirming fashion shows and movie nights, to celebratory dinners for National Coming Out Day and other holidays close to the hearts of queer students.
They get support from the USF Office of Multicultural Affairs, where people like Alison Garcia, the coordinator of LGBTQ+ initiatives, processes applications for Stonewall Suites and helps plan events.
“It really is that sense of community, knowing that you have a support system, knowing that you have specific events that either you're going to meet people who have your identity in different career fields or in different spaces in academic environments,” Garcia said.
How Stonewall Suites got started
Stonewall Suites started as one student's vision nearly 10 years ago, when genderqueer USF student Prin Ocea applied to the school with the promise that they were working on trans-inclusive housing. But those plans died when the active members of the Trans Student Union graduated, and the club faded into obscurity.
Then once on campus, Ocea had a troubling experience with a roommate.
"We had our roommate agreement meeting, where she told me that I would not be able to have any queer people over or any sleepovers or anything like that," Ocea said. "And so I didn't feel comfortable sleeping in my own room, so I didn't sleep there once after meeting her."
“You have a respite, basically, like a place to go where you can let your walls down a little bit and, put your feet up and take a deep breath and relax, and not feel like at any moment someone could try to harm you.”Prin Ocea
That experience eventually led to an internship that Ocea used to pitch their plan to the university — and set the foundation for what would become Stonewall Suites. Five years later, Stonewall is an active “living learning community” — or LLC — on campus that houses queer students.
Most LLCs at USF group students together by major. In Stonewall, the only prerequisite is that you’re part of the larger LGBTQ+ community — or an ally.
LLCs contribute to student success
"Being able to feel safe and comfortable with the people that you live with is going to make you be a better student. Iit's going to help you be more successful in your classes,” Ocea said.
According to USF, the grade-point average of students living in these LLCs is a 3.57, and retention rates are high.
“You have a respite, basically, like a place to go where you can let your walls down a little bit and, put your feet up and take a deep breath and relax, and not feel like at any moment someone could try to harm you,” Ocea said.
Several students who live there said that bullying and hate crimes have increased on campus since state legislators proposed dozens of bills aimed at the LGBTQ+ community.
But at least here, in these two residence halls at USF, they know their peers have their back.
