​About us

A student-run organization at Harvard College, the Queer Resource Center provides a comfortable, open place on campus for Harvard undergraduates to hang out, convene, and enjoy LGBTQ resources. Our hours are Monday-Friday, 11am-5pm (closed on holidays and reading/exam period), and we're located in the basement of Thayer Hall, in Harvard Yard. See THIS page for a map!​
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From a vast collection of DVDs and books for borrowing, to endless supplies of candy and snacks, to two of the most comfortable couches Harvard money can buy (from IKEA), the Queer Resource Center is a hub of undergraduate queer life. Visit us today, or check out the links on the left to find out more about our services!

 

Who We Are​

For over 10 years, the Queer Resource Center has served as the center of LGBTQ activism at Harvard College. Funded by the generous alumni of the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus, the QRC is open to all undergraduates as an open space by day, and hosts student organization meetings and events by night/weekends.



​Our History
Due to the lack of institutional memory that plagues most Harvard undergraduate student groups, the history and story of the QRC are somewhat... dubious. We're gonna try to give it to you straight, though.



What we do know is that records of our existence go all the way back to 1998. Back then, the Queer Resource Center was known as the BGLTSA Resource Center, an arm of the Harvard College BGLTSA (beh-GLIT-sah) student organization (now known as the QSA). It was located in a dingy little room (nay, closet) in the basement of Holworthy Hall, in Harvard Yard.



From anecdotal accounts, this space was indeed a cozy oasis, with a TV, VHS and book collection, and decorative pipes and valves in the walls, from which to hang other decorative wonders. The BGLTSA Resource Center served many of the same purposes as we do today, and played host to fun activities like a Valentine's day wedding booth, and, of course, nighttime adolescent mischief by the wonderful staffers who called it home.



In 2006, with the generous help of the Assistant Dean of Harvard College, Paul McLoughlin, and the HGLC, BGLTSA Resource Center underwent a move and a makeover! Relocated to its current location in Thayer Basement, the BGLTSA RC got a whole new set of furniture, an expanded library, and amnesty (kinda) from dingy pipes and valves.



In our five years of operation in Thayer, the QRC has indeed undergone many amazing changes. In conjunction with our move out of Holworthy Basement and the move of all other student organization space out of Harvard Yard, the BGLTSA RC broke ties with the BGLTSA around 2007, and became the BGLTS Resource Center (no more "alliance" in the name). Since then, we have operated with under our own jurisdiction, maintaining close relations with the QSA and other organizations. In 2009, we decided that "B-G-L-T-S Resource Center" was too awkward of a name... so we changed it to its current incarnation, the Queer Resource Center! Our most recent addition to the RC is a new flatscreen TV that replaced the generous donation of alumni from the HQ83 (Harvard Queers of 1983!).



Despite of our small space and humble beginnings, we at the Queer Resource Center are immensely proud of our rainbow-adorned home in Harvard Yard. We hope that you get the chance to visit our facilities today, and in our many years to come!