In 2021, California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom approved Assembly Bill (AB) 132 (known as the Postsecondary education trailer bill) which noted 39 changes to postsecondary environments with the intention to close equity gaps for students pursuing college. Through AB 132 Sec.89, the first ever appropriations for LGBTQ+ community colleges was made in the amount of $10 million one-time funds to support the LGBTQ+ students (Postsecondary education trailer bill, 2021). Guidance from the bill itself states it can be used to fund student centers, LGBTQ+ learning communities, curriculum development, mental health services and other related activities. And while drafted to support LGBTQ+ students and communities, AB 132 Sec.89 might once again inadvertently result in queer and/or trans students of color (QTSoC) at the margins. We have seen this time and time again.

Therefore, the purpose of this study is to interrogate AB 132 Sec. 89 through a  queer of color critique (QOCC) (Duran et al., 2022; Gonzalez & Duran, 2023) as a way to explicitly focus on intersecting axes of power and on normativity along multiple and intersecting lines of oppression and identity (Anzaldúa, 2001; Brockenbrough, 2015; Leonardi & Moses, 2021).  Employing QOCC can have significant impacts on disrupting dangerous normative systems. This constant lack of intersectional analysis (Duran et al., 2019) is important to reconcile as Patel (2021) reminds us that “narratives don’t just tell a story; they structure material realities” (p.104). Therefore, in continuing the conversation of centering queer and/or trans voces (Brockenbrough, 2015; Duran et al., 2022; Ferguson, 2004; González et al., 2023; Jackson et al., 2021; Salas-SantaCruz, 2021) we aim to explore how current implementation of AB 132 Sec. 89 advance QTSoC existence at community colleges or hinder their presence and perpetuate their in/visibility.