Alumni, students, faculty, and staff came together for pizza and conversation over “Quinner” (queer and dinner) November 10. Quinner has become a weekly tradition at Bowdoin’s Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity for students who are “out, coming out, figuring it out, or just want to hang out.”

Guests sat in small groups for conversation over Otto’s Pizza at Oxbow Bottling & Blending as Assistant Professor of Sociology Theo Greene, whose research includes the persistence of iconic gay neighborhoods in the postmodern city, led a discussion about finding queer—and safe—spaces at Bowdoin and beyond. “Thank you for an awesome dinner,” one student wrote. “I think for many of us, it was what we needed right now.”

Taking “Quinner on the Road” was inspired in part by an essay penned by Danny Chin ’12 (A Gay’s Guide to Dinner).”[W]hen I left Thursday night dinners behind, I found myself longing for a more robust queer community again,” Chin wrote. “There have been few spaces in my life (so far!) that have felt so genuinely inclusive.”