LGBTQ+ Equity Center Announces New Name

The University of Maryland’s LGBT Equity Center announced today that it has changed its name to the LGBTQ+ Equity Center.

The update reflects how the unit has been describing its communities and work in recent years.

The center’s social media handle is now @LGBTQequity, and its email address is lgbtq@umd.edu; emails to the old address will forward. Updates to the website address are forthcoming. Due to technology limitations, the "+" will not appear in every instance of the new name.

“This change is personally important to me as someone who identifies with the term ‘queer,’ and the ‘+’ is a reminder to us that there are many identities that are important that are not in a brief acronym. For me, personally, that includes ‘agender’ and ‘nonbinary’ and the Japanese term ‘x-jendā,’” said Shige Sakurai, acting director of the LGBTQ+ Equity Center. “For some folks, the ‘+’ might lift up terms such as ‘same-gender loving,’ ‘cuir, ‘intersex’ or ‘asexual.’”