Jade Jimenez
St. Olaf and Northfield community gathers for a night of trivia
On Oct. 1, The Taylor Center and Northfield Pride collaborated on a trivia night to kick off LGBTQ+ History Month. Free popcorn and ice cream were provided for attendees to enjoy.
“I got there pretty early, and I was honestly really surprised by the amount of decorations there were and how generally put-together it was,” James Liming ’27 said. “I’ve been to a few similar events that truly felt like ‘let’s just put a slideshow up and call it a day,’ so the amount of various things on tables and everything was pretty cool.”
Attendees were encouraged to sit at tables with other students and staff to form a team. There were four trivia categories: LGBTQ+ history and figures, symbols and flags, music, and miscellaneous. Some difficult questions were posed such as “what color on the original pride flag meant ‘life?’”
“I thought the questions were only difficult because, admittedly, I myself don’t know as much about LGBTQ+ history and trivia as I’d like to know,” Tsiory Andriamananjara ’27 said. “If anything, the difficulty of the questions just made me want to learn more afterwards.”
The trivia event was a space for students to learn more about LGBTQ+ history and encourage inclusivity on campus.
“I would say, for St. Olaf, the best thing you can do is stay tuned in to whatever the Taylor Center is doing, and see where you can participate,” Chair of Northfield Pride Angie Gustafson said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger. “This will give you opportunities to meet new people and make new connections, kind of keep the conversation going around those themes- and that can help you be involved in the way that works best for you.”
The event also got attendees thinking about LGBTQ+ figures that are significant to them. Gustafson’s favorite figure was Alan Turing, a British mathematician monikered “The Father of Computer Science”.
“[It’s] because I’m a web developer,” Gustafson said. “So that’s why I get really excited about Alan Turing because he was such a pioneer in the field of computing at a time that was really crucial, and he did not get treated with the respect that he deserved as a person who helped the Allies with [World War II] in a very significant way. He was not treated well by his nation. He’s one of my heroes.”
More information on LGBTQ+ History Month events hosted by the Taylor Center can be found on their Instagram page @taylorcenter_olaf.