PSU engages campus, community with Pride Week
November 22, 2009
Pride Student Union, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and straight ally resource center on campus, recently closed Pride Week, a week of events designed to garner awareness and support for LGBTQ issues on a community and national level.
Pride Week kicked off Sunday, Nov. 8 at 5 p.m. with participation in the Recognized Student Organization Scavenger Hunt. On Monday, the group celebrated “Why I’m Fabulous Day” in Oglesby Union.
“We all wrote down on these pieces of paper – you could be as artistic as you want – what makes us fabulous,” said Simone Kallett, Pride Student Union volunteer and Florida State University student.
The event included testimonies from LGBTQ students and the interested passerby. Kallett said the best part of the event was reading over the papers upon returning to the Center.
“The participation was astounding,” said Kallett.
On Tuesday, an LGBTQ History Potluck was held at the Pride Center. Students brought food to share and watched a historical presentation given by student Jaime Bayo, a student government senator.
Ron Bunting, a community ally previously affiliated with the Family Tree, Tallahassee’s LGBTQ support group, said the center was “packed with people” waiting for the presentation.
“It was basically a history of the gay movement since 1969, beginning with the Stonewall riots, all the way up to the creation of the Pride Student Union,” said Bunting.
Robert Payne, a Pride member and attendee at the potluck, thought Tuesday’s event was one of the week’s best.
“It was probably the most enlightening event I’ve attended that wasn’t part of school curriculum,” said Payne. “They don’t really talk about LGBTQ rights in high school American History or College History. You might get a blurb about Harvey Milk or the gay rights struggle, nothing else. […] The fact that the PSU took the time to educate us about our community does invoke a sense of pride.”
In honor of Veteran’s Day, Pride held a “Captain Ron Service Day” in honor of Bunting, a veteran Navy Captain and loyal Pride ally who has given the PSU a lot of his time and support.
Thursday was Karaoke Night at Bird’s Aphrodisiac Oyster Bar.
“It was an opportunity for the LGBTQ community on campus to come together for community night out,” said Payne. “It was a great time and opportunity for fellowship.”
On Friday, PSU held an event called “I Want Sex & Candy: Lesbian Safe Sex 101” at the Amtrak Station. The event provided a fun, flirtatious environment to discuss an important issue–preventing the spread of STDs. Often the issue is a taboo topic due to homophobia.
Friday also saw the hosting of one of the week’s most important events. A law giving marriage equality to homosexuals in Maine was repealed, which was considered a brutal blow to advocates of LGBTQ rights. In mourning of this event, PSU hosted a “Maine Marriage Funeral.” Attendees of the event gave speeches on Landis Green, followed by a processional to the Center along with more speeches. FSUPD provided police escorts, who protected the over 60-person processional as they walked to the Center carrying a cardboard coffin draped with the LGBTQ flag. Members of the processional sang “Seasons of Love” from the musical Rent and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz.
“We were expressing our sadness to the rest of the community, teaching them about our cause. It was a very poignant way of doing it,” said Kallett, who gave a graveside speech.
Pride members were astounded by the level of support, but still daunted by the task ahead in the fight for marriage equality.
“I think it’s good that we did have so much support on Friday, but the fight isn’t over. We still need to improve ethics at FSU, we need to help students on FSU campus,” said Kallett, referring to the university’s refusal to protect LGBTQ students by including them in its non-discrimination clause.
Payne, along with another FSU student, Megan McKenzie, helped organize the funeral.
“We did not expect to lose the election in Maine.” said Payne. “When it happened we were angry, we were upset. The last thing we want right now is for Tallahassee, for Florida, for the country, to say that the gay community is complacent. We got together to send a message that we’re not happy with the current situation.”
The week came to a close with Saturday’s volunteer Kid Day, where Pride members met to help families from Family Tree. On Sunday, Steph Taylor and The State of performed at The Engine Room.
The organizers of Pride Week had many goals, most of which were accomplished. The most important, according to Bunting, was visibility.
“If you’re not silent, then you’re visible,” said Bunting. “So by extension, visibility is not being in the closet. Without visibility you can’t move forward. So in that context, this whole Pride Week is about visibility. And not simply just visibility for the sake of being visible, but all of the things that they do in respect to Pride Week. […] It is to serve notice [...] that we do contribute an awful lot of things to the betterment of community in general and our community.”
Payne also thought the week was successful in reaching their goals.
“I think the ultimate goal of Pride Week is to send a message that we are here. There is an LGBTQ community on campus,” said Payne.
Pride members gathered to call out to the community, to express the cruel injustice of laws like “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” which is a military policy which prohibits homosexuals or bisexuals from speaking openly about their sexual orientation while serving in active duty. It is something that has personally affected Bunting as a member of the armed forces.
Pride Week contributed to Pride’s efforts to increase visibility and gain awareness and support for their beliefs on campus. For more information about the Pride Student Union go to sga.fsu.edu/pride.
