khristian kemp-delisser is coming full-circle.

Following the departure of Tiffany Gray in October, kemp-delisser has been appointed director of Syracuse University’s LGBT Resource Center. Their first day is on Monday. And just like Rob Pusch, the center’s interim director over the past few months, kemp-delisser was a part of the 2001 committee that transformed the LGBT Resource Center from a proposal to a reality.

“Emotionally, it’s like going home,” said kemp-delisser, who graduated from SU in 2001. “But at the same time, it’s extremely different. It’s been 17 years. I wouldn’t expect anything to be the same after all of that time.”

The bluish-grey LGBT Resource Center house on Ostrom Avenue is a hub for SU’s queer community. Regularly, students who walk up to the center can find a pride flag fluttering from its front porch.

Inside is an office space, a kitchen and a living room. Comfy couch seating, shelves lined with queer films and TV shows on DVD, and an all-encompassing rainbow mural.

Twenty years ago, this center of programming and opportunities for LGBT-identified students wasn’t nearly the case, kemp-delisser recalled. They said SU’s LGBT climate was good but “burgeoning” in the late 1990s. kemp-delisser had to figure out their identity as best they could with limited resources.

“I tend to be an experiential learner who likes to immerse myself into projects that I take on,” kemp-delisser said. “So, it was a personal project of really trying to find myself as a freshman.”

Beyond coming out, kemp-delisser had a tough time finding a core group of friends, they said.

“I didn’t fit that. I wasn’t a skinny, white boy from an affluent background who liked to party,” kemp-delisser said. “Nevertheless, I did find that there were nerds who were gay. And there were pop fans who were gay. There were really academic but also fun-loving, party-school people who were all a part of our community.”

kemp-delisser joined Pride Union and learned more about what it meant to belong to an LGBT social group, they said. It marked the beginning of kemp-delisser’s career in improving LGBT campus life.

In their junior and senior years, though, kemp-delisser became frustrated with the lack of racial diversity in SU’s visible LGBT community. By then, they had been elected Pride Union president.

“I had to be at those meetings because I was an officer,” kemp-delisser said. “But at the same time, I would be like, ‘Oh my God, it would be easier if there were more people of color in this space.’ And people didn’t really get that.”

kemp-delisser said it wasn’t until after graduation, when they went to the national Creating Change Conference, that they felt at-home being queer and black.

“That was the first time I even knew it was possible. To not be conflicted. I made that my goal,” they said.

After majoring in newspaper journalism and English and textual studies at SU, kemp-delisser attended the University of Vermont, Burlington to get their master’s and doctorate degrees. For six years, they served as coordinator of assessment and student retention at UVM’s African / Latino / Asian / Native American Student Center. In 2014, they became the director of LGBTQ Initiatives at Colgate University.

Beyond their credentials on paper, Pusch said kemp-delisser’s personality and work style makes them a good fit for the job. He described kemp-delisser as a calm influence, saying they are not reactive in times of crisis.

“They’re very reflective and very thoughtful about how they respond to things,” Pusch said. “I always appreciate that in somebody in this kind of position.”

Dena Bodian, a rabbi and the associate director of Jewish life at Colgate, said kemp-delisser’s personality lends itself well to problem-solving.

Chimebere Nwaoduh, an assistant director of resident life at Colgate, recalled her time as a student intern for LGBTQ Initiatives under kemp-delisser. The one-on-one meetings kemp-delisser had with staffers stuck out to Nwaoduh.

Nwaoduh said that, although she’s no longer a student intern, in the days before kemp-delisser left, they still checked in with her and let her know they cared.

kemp-delisser is also used to giving their all: As an administrator at Colgate, they were an office of one. But that is the norm at many college campuses with LGBT resources, Pusch said. He said that, sometimes, there’s only one program coordinator.

khristian said they’re looking forward to having a bigger network to support them in their work at SU. They’ll have a team complete with graduate students and undergraduates, along with professional staffers.

“It’s new and exciting. It’s also really unusual,” kemp-delisser said.

For kemp-delisser, a queer person of color, intersectionality is an important theme in their life and work. Among their favorite documentaries is “Check It,” which follows black gay and transgender kids in Washington, D.C. who form a gang to protect themselves. kemp-delisser also enjoys “Kiki,” a 2016 documentary about New York City drag culture.

“Those that feature and center the real-life, lived experience of queer people of color are things that really give me life,” kemp-delisser said.

Nwaoduh and Bodian said kemp-delisser would hold the LGBTQ Initiatives student interns accountable by ensuring that every student was able to have a seat at the table.

“It was so like khristian to not just agree to disagree, but to think really deeply and make the effort to understand someone else’s perspective,” Bodian said.

kemp-delisser said the center must consider the needs of people with disabilities when it comes to accessing its physical location. There’s a ramp in the front of the building, but it has stairs leading up to it. They said the location should be changed to an area that’s more accessible to people with disabilities.

They said they were surprised to find the LGBT Resource Center is in the same place as it was when it was first established.

“We really need to change the location, not only symbolically there on the edge of campus,” kemp-delisser said. “I think it sends a bad message about where we think LGBTQ people and our issues belong.”

Published on April 1, 2018 at 10:19 pm