Pride Month has returned to the MU campus and will feature 37 events throughout the month of April.
“Pride Month is traditionally celebrated in June in the United States, but because students are gone, we celebrate it on campus in April,” LGBTQ Resource Center Coordinator Struby Struble said.
Pride Month is held in June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan. Viewed as the tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn rose up against repeated harassment and persecution in the LGBT community from police officers.
President Bill Clinton issued Proclamation No. 7316 on June 2, 2000, marking the entire month of June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.
The month has since expanded to include all facets of the LGBT community over the last 15 years.
On campus, the LGBTQ Resource Center has partnered with dozens of organizations across campus, including the Triangle Coalition, the Women’s Center, the Multicultural Center and the Chancellor’s Diversity Initiative.
“We’re really proud of all the collaboration and variety of events we’re able to offer and help with,” Struble said.
Throughout the month, students are encouraged to share photos of themselves showing their pride with the hashtag #onwednesdayswewearpride or #wearpridewednesdays.
Partnering with the LGBTQ Resource Center, the Sexual Health Advocate Peer Education program is promoting another meaning for the month of April: STI Awareness Month.
At Friday’s “Let’s Get Loud Drag Show,” held in the Memorial Union, SHAPE representatives provided resources, products and awareness of sexual health.
“We were invited here by the LGBTQ Resource Center just to give out free condoms and other free products like oral dams and female condoms, and promote sexual health safety,” SHAPE representative Hannah Dismer said.
SHAPE also promoted its “Get Yourself Tested” event, to be held April 15. Testing is free and confidential and includes free tank tops while supplies last. The event goes from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in room 2206 of the MU Student Center.
Other events taking place are Pride Prom on the evening of April 11 in the Mark Twain Ballroom of Memorial Union. Guests are encouraged to wear what they like and bring who they like.
Queer Monologues is April 25 in Jesse Wrench Auditorium. Pride Parade is at noon on April 29, beginning at the fountain outside of The Shack and marching across campus.
Additionally, an open Safe Space Training session is available from 6-8 p.m. on April 13 in the LGBTQ Resource Center, and Catalyst Award Nominations are due April 17. Catalyst awards are given out at the end-of-the-year reception and awards ceremony to celebrate those who speak up, out and on behalf of the LGBT community.
This year’s keynote speaker is Robyn Ochs, editor of Bi Women Quarterly, the 42-country anthology Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World and RECOGNIZE: The Voices of Bisexual Men. Ochs will be speaking at 6 p.m. on April 29 in Stotler Lounge in addition to hosting a lunch discussion on middle sexualities at 12:30 p.m. on April 30 in the LGBTQ Resource Center.
Pride Month ends with the return of Take Back the Night March at 7 p.m. on April 30. The Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Center is hosting the event, which is returning after a five-year hiatus. It aims to empower survivors and provide urgency to end sexual violence on campus.
