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I have been up in Auckland for the last couple of weeks, which has been sunny and fabulous. I managed to head to the Big Gay Out, which was cool despite the inclement weather, and the fact that John Key was voted sexiest male politician. That poll must be rigged, cause John Key rates below zero on my sex appeal radar. Give me Gareth Hughes any day, or even David Parker, who seems to have a cheeky side and twinkly eyes. Jacinda Adern was crowned sexiest female, but I would have gone with Maryan Street – she has that hot silver-haired dominatrix thing going on. But I digress. My most memorable moment was my cheek-to-cheek kiss malfunction with a gay politician – where we each got half a mouth (I think?). This left me simultaneously dizzy, turned on and mortified for the rest of the day. I also got to check out Queerlesque at DNA, which was an awesome celebration of queer bodies in performance – something that we don’t get to see enough of in Dunedin.

My main reason for heading up to Auckland was to help host the first ever Queers in Tertiary Education Hui. It brought together around fifty educators, community leaders and students to discuss the concerns facing queer and trans folk in higher education in NZ. What was most heartening was the national interest in what we do here at Otago. Our campus is the only one nationwide to have a paid staff member providing information and support for queer and trans students. Hopefully this absence will not last too much longer, with staff from Auckland, Victoria and Canterbury preparing the groundwork for similar services in their institutions. Ultimately our vision is to have a network of queer/trans resource centres across the country that can provide support and information for queer and trans students and staff, as well as advance campaigns for our communities. The value of services like these is that with a little they always do a lot. Queer support, for example, reaches out to hundreds of students at Otago every year despite its modest budget.

If you want to chat about this further do contact me at dameladida@gmail.com. For general social enquiries contact uniqotago@gmail.com, and for support and information contact Neill and Jamie at OUSA Queer Support at q.support@ousa.org.nz