You might wonder how this post belongs on a company website. It is about life, specifically work-life balance. It is also about how community service can change your whole life and how it helped me to get off the corporate career train, which I know many people also struggle with.
This is the full-length English version of an interview with our CEO for the HAZ-Magazine. Here you can see the German version as published:
https://www.haz.ch/dateien/2024/03/HAZ_Magazin_012024_onlineVersion.pdf
Volunteering in the queer community is often not only a commitment and obligation to support a project free of charge, but also a way for many people to find support and stability in a community.
- How did you come to volunteer at Regenbogenhaus and with your own working group at HAZ-Queer Zurich?
In 2016 I already tried to become active in the community in Zürich, but somehow, I found nothing that really was a fit. Things were either very established or very unprofessional. I also personally did not resonate well with most of the groups where I tried to get involved at. The Rainbow House, which I just like to call as the House with capital H, was something new, not established, in the making. I just subscribed to their newsletter and started following the story of the newly founded non-profit organisation, their crowd funding, and the building of the magnificent Zollhause, the magical multifunctional space where the Rainbow House is also located.
The first photos in the newsletter showed the newly laid foundations of the middle Zollhaus building where we were going to be located. Finally in June 2021 the House opened its doors to the public and I started as member of the initial volunteer team: Team Rainbow House. It was times of CoViD, we were operating under restrictions, were wearing masks all the time, and even controlling the vaccine passes of the visitors.
- What positive or negative experiences were you able to gain through your involvement?
In the beginning there has been very little going on during our opening hours. These are the half days the volunteer team has to cover when the House is open to the public. I remember having spent many Wednesdays and Fridays between 15-19 here with no visitors coming at all. We were playing chess with another trans girl, at least when she wasn‘t sleeping on the couch.
The team and the offered activities gradually grew, people started coming and I also got involved as you mentioned in the HAZ work as organizing moderator of the QueerMigs discussion group. We were meeting monthly talking through an arch of topics mainly I gathered and prepared. Was fun and I think people liked the group. I did it for a bit over a year. The group operates now under a different leadership.
There have been several negative acquaintances at the House although these will never cast shadow on the humongous volume of positive energies and positive exchange the House gave me. I also made mistakes now and then where I have offended people. It was also new for me how to manoeuvre in the queer community. The leadership of Rainbow House and of HAZ has always backed me up and protected me when there was any offensive, insulting or unfair situation.
- To what extent has your volunteering in the queer community influenced your personal development.
For me volunteering is more than having found a meaningful occupation, also more than simply the community aspect. The establishment of the Rainbow House accompanied my gender transition. It gave me a reason to dress up and get out of my home twice a week to get compliments, feedback and to exchange on everything trans and non-trans. My feminine gender expression blossomed as I grew simultaneously into the social role and perception of a women. What I got from this community is the most manifest and natural perception of my true gender identity. And that from the very beginning when that short haired overweight binary gender non-conforming person I was started coming.
The opportunity to be able to grow from baby trans to where I am now catalysed all other elements of transition that being legal, medical, as well as social (in all other areas of my life, like broader family, old friends, and work). We built everything at the House together from scratch. All installations, offerings, the whole way of operation as well as the actual team was developed gradually and over the past 2,5 years. The time I was also in the making as a woman. Therefore, I can say with confidence: I am the House, the House is me.
- How do you believe your background or personal experiences have shaped your approach to volunteering within the queer community?
Yes, my Swissness. They say it is very hard to integrate in Switzerland as a foreigner. Should this be true I was very lucky, because I always felt that here nobody is Swiss or Non-Swiss, you are primarily Queer and that is what matters. Even though my German is not Swiss and even me not understanding always all being said in a dialect, I come across. People want to understand me, maybe because it matters what I have to say, they want me to keep sharing my story. And maybe because I also got to understand Swiss German as well as Swiss people better. I can say officially as well as socially I am Swiss now. That is also something I thank the House for, and I see people with not perfect German being similarly welcomed and offered this kind of opportunity for integration as I had. Thank you all.
- As someone who has dedicated their time and energy to supporting the queer community, what advice would you give to individuals who are interested in getting involved.
As you can see for me the overall benefits, I got from volunteering is an enormous package. But I had to hang in there, I had to keep coming, had to bear withe many boring hours and dull discussions where I was thinking what the hell I am doing here. I was at the right place at the right time, but there is still a lot of room to contribute here. So, I can only advise all interested to come and make the Rainbow House your home. Breathe what is going on, volunteer for HAZ as well, enjoy the events. Invest and see what you get out. Keep hanging in there and the House will grow you into its tissue and body. And that is probably the purpose of volunteering: belonging at where you are seen.