Weir House Queer House: What brings the queer into Weir

Zoȅ Mills (she/her) & Jeanne-Claire Gordon (she/her)

We’re both quite queer. Fruity as HELL. Part of the alphabet-mafia. And this year, we are living at VUW’s oldest hall of residence, Weir House. 

And we have noticed some... things about it. 

Simply put: Weir House is a bit fruity.

Built in the 1900s, Weir House was originally built as a male-only University hall  designed to support “upstanding young men” in their educational pursuits—but Weir has recently been overrun. By the gays.

Jeanne here—I caught on to this fruity trail in the first week, when I noticed a lot of people on my floor identified as bisexual (the amount of mullets were also a good indicator).

I caught on shortly after Jeanne—Zoe here—when I pulled up to Ivy during OWeek and ran into half the hall at the bar (the amount of Willow Smith I heard blasting through the halls was also a factor). So, in order to set the record straight—haha, get it—Jeanne and I conducted a survey to our fellow Weir House residents to finally answer the age old question: just how queer is Weir?

According to our poll which asked students to identify their sexual preferences, we have discovered that whopping 45% of Weir House identifies as queer, meaning that one in every 2-3 residents will own a long black leather jacket and Doc Martens.

Other residents also added their own additional identities, such as “questioning” and “I don’t really fuck with labels”. The most common queer sexuality was bisexual, with 23%, followed by queer. It’s worth noting that 58% of students are taking an Arts degree, followed by Law, which is taken by 19% of students.

While we dont have the scientific evidence to prove that queer people are more likely to study a BA than another degree, we can assume that fruity people are more drawn

to the humanities than any other discipline—I mean, which other degree has Gender Studies.

So, what draws in the gays to Weir? Is it the old architecture that gives major cottagecore-dark-academia vibes? Is it the act of reclaiming a space originally reserved for the straight white man? Or is it just the fact that Weir just happens to rhyme with queer, serving as a subconscious marketing ploy to the gays.

Although I’m stoked that our founder William Weir left his money to be put forward for the hall I call home, he was very clear that that the money was to be put towards a male only residential hall. After our buddy Will died, a litigation in his will meant that women were formally allowed to attend in 1994. While women have only been allowed to come to Weir for 27 years, we have found out, thanks to our survey, that 64% of residents identify as female (so suck on that, Willie Weir).

Perhaps it is an accumulation of all these factors that brings in the queer to Weir—that act of being able to occupy a space that historically would have excluded you for who you are; being able to forge an accepting community with like- minded individuals with shared experiences.

So—is the mystery of Weir House Queer House solved? No, not really. But, I think Zoe and I can both say that, for whatever the real reason is, being in such an inclusive and welcoming environment is worth whatever gay magic is Happening.

(Fun fact: Weir House also was the hall Guy Williams attended in 2006. It’s not particularly relevant to what we are talking about, but it’s worth a mention. He’s NZ royalty after all.)