LGBTQ community celebrates Pride Month
Some activities will be a drag show and a day of silence.
Published April 7, 2009
April is full of events to promote awareness, learning and understanding of the LGBTQ community on campus. Fluidity President Emily Colvin said the April is referred to as Pride Month.
Fluidity is a new transgender discussion and support group that started last fall. The focus of the group is on faculty, staff and students of the MU campus. Because of privacy, meetings will be exclusive to the members of the transgender community, but they will be open to everyone in the community sometime next semester.
Colvin hopes to create a group that will be "strong in members and strong in the community" in the future. She also hopes Fluidity will plan a Transgender Awareness Day event in November.
One of the challenges Fluidity might face are members of the transgender community who are in "stealth." These are transgender people who have completed their transition and are no longer active in their community to protect their identities.
Colvin and Fluidity are promoting a lecture by Angela Davis. The human rights activist will be speaking at 7 p.m. April 9 in Jesse Auditorium.
Gamma Rho Lambda, an all-inclusive sorority, is a safe haven for people to identify as members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning community. GRL focuses on social justice issues and events around Columbia. GRL and Triangle Coalition, the umbrella organization for the LGBTQ groups, has organized a Day of Silence on April 17. Members of the LGBTQ community and their allies will take a vow of silence to bring awareness to the community.
"It's supposed to be an empowering thing," GRL President Yantézia Patrick said.
Those taking the vow will wear matching T-shirts and hand out cards explaining the reason for their silence. The student groups participating will break the silence on the steps of Jesse Hall that night.
Triangle Coalition is also holding a drag show April 18 called "Pride on the Prairie" where students from other Midwestern schools are invited to come and celebrate diversity.
"We want people to see us as a visible community and to understand the diversity of the LGBTQ community," Triangle Coalition President Asher Kolieboi said.
Allies in Action, an organization created to foster the involvement of allies to the LGBTQ community, has organized Ally Week. Ally Week will be April 20-24. April 20 will be Ally Outreach at Speakers Circle from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Group members will be discussing what it means to be an ally as well as selling iCare T-shirts for $5. Tuesday there will be an Ally Safe Space event at 6 p.m. in Arts and Science Building 308. Allies in Action will be discussing how to be an ally and the resources available on campus. Ally Week will conclude with a Pride March on Thursday celebrating individuality.
Allies in Action founder and President Lance Pierce said he hopes LGBTQ Awareness month allows everyone to "learn more about the LGBTQ community and have an opportunity to celebrate diversity at Mizzou."