Students Who Are Not Silent clubs doors are open to all students regardless of their sexuality. Club officer Fell Fry talks through the club mission, their SWANS experience, and the upcoming drag show this April.

Q: What are your preferred pronouns?

A: it/its, she/her. they/them and then thon/thons

Q: What does SWANS stand for?

A: SWANS stands for Students Who Are Not Silent

Q: What does that mean to you?

A: It is the established community. here at ECC. We do all sorts of stuff, we do some activism for like, uh things that we need to bring up at the college. If there’s uh diversity issues. um, we have events going on, uh, like our general meetings, we post a yearly drag show as well.. which I believe is in April this year, though I could be incorrect on that. end of April beginning of may somewhere around there.

Q: Can you explain the SWANS club mission?

A: So, Swans aims to create a community for everyone under the LGBTQI plus umbrella here and um yeah, create community and have events and meetings that showcase the people here in need of uh representation.

Q: How long have you been a part of SWANS?

A: I have been apart of SWANS for I think 3 semesters now

Q: What drew you to the SWANS club?

A: Uh, I had realized I was queer, I believe. a year before I arrived at ECC. and when I found out that there was a club for queer people, I joined it and um it also helps that we share several a lot of membership with gamers United, which is the other club that I am in. 
So it, uh it helps it helps with community. um it’s really helped me with that.

Q: What is your favorite part about being in the SWANS club?

A: People that I’ve met, most of the people with whom I interact with are in Swans. There might be other clubs as well, but it is a great sort of anchor. And, yeah, I think I think just about every friend I have either is in or has been in SWANS.

Q: What are some important things the SWANS club has done here at ECC?

A: Uh, I think advocacy is the biggest one. the issues with the restrooms, Yes, um, our reaction is also uh one of my I think it’s our biggest event. We get professional drag queens and if there are any student performers and we have a whole production, we have lights. 
We have songs, uh et cetera, et cetera. I think that is I think one of yeah, definitely one of the most important things that we have done. uh in terms of fostering that community around here.

Q: Are there any upcoming SWANS hosted events that students may want to know about?

A: Honestly, that, that’s one of the biggest ones getting people there. and being able to tell the student government that we did so allows us to obtain the funding that we use for everything, because, uh, especially for the drag show, like paying the performers is um we, we need money from the school for that. And yeah, I think, I think that’s it. There might be more announced. Our president is a good person to contact for that.