A new social movement has been launched to advocate for queer people of colour in Cambridge after its founder went viral for saying that they were called a racial slur by a Cambridge student in public.

The website for the new movement, called ‘Cambridge is Chopped’, states: “The aim is to amplify experiences of racism, hold spaces accountable for their complacency in addressing racism, and help create communities and events for [queer people of colour] and allies.”

The movement’s founder, Guillotina, told Varsity that their primary goal is to build a support network for queer people of colour in Cambridge. Cambridge is Chopped plans to invite people to share times that they have witnessed racism in the city.

Guillotina then intends on collating the information to identify where the recorded racist incidents are most common. From this, they hope to put more pressure on spaces and venues that they claim are not adequately addressing racist incidents, and “work with other spaces to help make them less hostile and more accountable to our communities”.

The movement’s website defines ‘chopped’ as: “Something that is ugly, busted, disgusting or just plain shit.” The term originates from Ballroom culture, an LGBTQ+ subculture founded by queer black people in 19th-century America, in which judges ‘chop’ contestants they deem unimpressive in a ball.

Guillotina, a black drag performer, told Varsity that they called the movement ‘Cambridge is Chopped’ because: “The state of the city is unacceptable and hostile toward queer people of colour. If Cambridge were a person and walked in a ball, it would be chopped – hence why I called it that. This is also a feeling I’ve had in general since moving here. I feel like using the word chopped is a nice way to signify its relation to queer people of colour.”

The founding of the movement comes after Guillotina received 180,000 views and 12,000 likes on an Instagram post from November where they said they were called a racial slur by a Cambridge student in McDonald’s.

After the incident, Guillotina reported it to the police, but has since dropped the case to focus on the Cambridge is Chopped campaign, saying: “If there’s one thing I realised during the two weeks this blew up, it’s that beyond my individual case, Cambridge hadn’t changed at all.”

Guillotina told Varsity that after the original incident, “The first thing I felt was unsafe – like I could be called the N-word anywhere in this city. Because I have no family to move back home to, I would be stuck in Cambridge.”

They added: “I felt that the only way to make myself feel safe was to actively work toward making Cambridge a safer place for me. In a way, a ‘movement’ is just a word used to describe me trying to make Cambridge a safer place for other queer people of colour like myself. This was a form of self-defence.”

Guillotina explained that they believed that “it’s not about one person,” with regards to the racism they had experienced, and that they felt it was concerning that no one came to their support in McDonald’s.

“In the grand scheme of things, Cambridge could be seen as progressive to the average person. There is a large activism scene here, and Cambridge’s trans rights activism is genuinely strong. However, due to the city’s lack of people of colour in general, there is a very blatant lack of activism addressing racism.”

The initial launch of the movement has already proven to be successful, receiving over 600 likes within 24 hours of the launch post on Instagram, and many positive comments.

However, Guillotina told Varsity that they did not expect the launch of the movement to be straightforward: “It will require a lot of hard work and is an immense responsibility to shoulder, but if this is what needs to be done for us to feel comfortable and safe here, then so be it.”