Saga’s primary purpose–like many other schools’ queer clubs–is to provide a safe space, but unlike other queer clubs, Saga has taken on extra responsibilities and purpose beyond just being a safe space.

So what is their purpose beyond being a safe space?

Saga’s president Ember Camp, and vice president Sospeter Mutisya illuminated two purposes beyond being a safe space.

Camp focused on their work “With the city, other clubs, and event organizers to create [queer] stands and events … because I don’t know who else would, it’s not really a priority for the rest of the school board or any other kind of organization.”

Camp went on to further detail that “We took them on because it’s a difficult environment in a lot of ways for everyone in the community …  I think that the club participating in and creating these events by working with other clubs, the city, or event organizers … supports the people that we’re protecting … [it] serves to empower support of this community, our community.”

When asked about the circumstances leading to this, Camp stated: “People are called slurs everyday, in our school, in our wider community, people aren’t accepted in places, and we need to counteract that, we need to give people a place of hope and acceptance.”

While Camp focused on the events Saga works on and plans, Mutisya explained how Saga serves as “An outlet for queer history … by looking at queer history we can see things happening today aren’t all that new, and by looking at answers to transgressions before us we can create plans to better protect ourselves especially within the shortening of rights.”

When asked upon the struggles they’ve faced in defining Saga beyond a safe space, Mutisya detailed how “Initially a lot of people felt like we weren’t doing enough,” as “We didn’t have a good reference as what to do … there was no playbook for us … we weren’t able to form concrete patterns or concrete schedules, the only thing that we knew we were going to do was interact with the Maple valley city council, and do stuff for the community.”

Whereas Camp detailed the struggles of the harm caused by previous Saga councils: “Because of how Saga was last year, and years before, returning members are less likely to come back, because of how bad it was, and how it wasn’t accepting, and that is a shame for sure, and it really sucks that we’re having to undo a lot of the harm that was done in previous years by previous members, and previous oversights, it was bad, and it shouldn’t have been that way, and I don’t blame anyone that’s not coming back for not coming back.”