Students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered have a reason to celebrate throughout the month of April. Members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Alliance are sponsoring the annual Queer Pride Celebration and have organized activities and events to celebrate their sexuality.
“It’s an important time for students and staff and faculty and LGBT and their friends and families to come together and celebrate who they are,” said Brooke Lather, intern director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Educational and Support Services Program (LGBTESSP).
Gabrielle Hendel, a senior psychology major and director of the LGBTA, said she hopes members of the LGBT community and heterosexual students will participate in the celebration in an effort to educate themselves on LGBT issues.
“It’s important to the cultural diversity on campus,” Hendel said.
The LGBTA, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary on campus, is celebrating Queer Pride month in April as opposed to June, when it is celebrated nationally, because most students leave campus over the summer.
Tonight, students have the opportunity to listen to Staceyann Chin, a poet who will perform a stand-up routine at The Buzz at 6 p.m.
Other upcoming events include LGBTA movie nights, the Queer Pride Dance on Saturday and a brown-bag lunch during which students will be able to discuss LGBT women’s and sexual health issues.
Some events, such as InterSEXions, a brown-bag lunch series dealing with LGBT issues, are sponsored by LGBTESSP. Lather said the InterSEXions series gives students a chance to discuss sexual identity with guest speakers.
“Basically, it’s looking at what is gender, what determines sexual identity,” she said.
The LGBTA will wrap up the month-long celebration with Lesbopalooza, a concert by a number of gay, transgendered and bisexual artists on April 29 and a lesbian music and culture forum on April 30. Hendel said she is excited to have the bands come to campus and hopes all students will want to come listen to their music.
“It’s just good music, regardless of whether you’re queer or not,” she said.
Hendel also said the celebration brings together different subsections of the LGBT community, which might usually not interact much, and helps them become aware of issues outside their sexual orientation.
“It just binds our community together,” she said.
Senior linguistics major Hawley Mathieson, events coordinator for LGBTESSP, said besides giving the LGBT community more cohesion, the celebration also demonstrates to the community that students of different sexual orientation are part of the University community, as well as the community at large.
“I think this is important because it allows not only the campus community but also the greater community to see… that there really is an LGBT community out here. It’s the idea of raising the awareness that ‘hey, we are here, and we are a valid part of the community,” Hawley Mathieson, Events Coordinator of he LGBTESSP said.