In 2006 a young student at the University of Geneva named Leila founded the LGBT club Think Out. Since its formation, this fledgling organization, run by roughly 5 students, has rapidly expanded to become a large collective of over 100 members and 3 out instructors. Active instructors include Naomi Matsunaga, author, lecturer at the University of Geneva's Department of Letters and contributor to Tokyo Wrestling, as well as Catherine, a former University of Geneva student who has close ties with Japan after spending one year at Tokyo's Waseda University in 2004.

Catherine has long been active in LGBT organizing - she took part in the Waseda University LGBT group GLOW during her year abroad and is also a parent to the University of Geneva's collective. This fabulously queer go-getter introduced me to Leila and also guided me around the city of Geneva.

TW presents an interview with the founder of Think Out - and all around upstanding lesbian, Leila. Meet one of Switzerland's own tough girls!

★Think Out
●Meetings held alternately at Le Phare and Livresse every Tuesday
●For Think Out's official homepage, visit
http://thinkout.canalblog.com

--When did you start Think Out, and what inspired you to do so?

Well, first I want to say that though I did start the association, that would not have been possible without the help and support of many people who were with me from the beginning. I founded Think Out and registered it with the University in November 2006, which was still my first year there. For us, it was very important to have the recognition of a public institution so we purposely started a group registered with the University.

--Since school begins at the end of September in Switzerland, that means you really started the organization very quickly after entering your first term. What was your reason for starting Think Out?

Yes, well, when I entered school as a freshman, I wondered if there weren't any other queer students at the University. So immediately I searched to see if there were any relevant student groups, and I found there was once one - but it came to an end over 15 years ago! Seeing that, I rounded up my courage and started a new one.

I figured that I wanted to make a group where LGBT and queer students could just meet and get together. Early on there were already about 20 students coming to our meetings every Tuesday. Since the response was so good, I soon got the feeling that a special collective had just been born.

--What kind of activities is the group specifically involved in?

First of all, Think Out offers a space for people to discuss love, sexual orientation, gender, and other related topics. We get together every week and share. Sometimes we have instructors or experts come and speak about their field, and we also get involved in collaborative projects with local, national, or international organizations. One of our aims is to improve LGBT visibility and understanding for our issues, so we also speak with Swiss television and radio stations for broadcast.

In addition, we collaborate with the Canton of Geneva to hold several celebratory events each year. Also, we've even held a concert with the very famous Canadian band Lesbians on Ecstasy.

translated by rayna