PRIDE Week

This year’s PRIDE Week was a great success, thanks to our great partners, students, volunteers, and U of L community!! Over the course of the week there were two welcoming and inclusive faith services, two cookouts and resource fairs (one at the Health Sciences Campus- a first!) a great keynote experience with Janet Mock, and a riveting discussion on the intersections of race and LGBT identity. Graduate student Sebastian Barr said “Not only did I get to meet someone I have admired for years, I was reminded of the power of my story and the stories of our community.”

Students were able to see a number of displays of support, from the flags hanging from the clock tower to the “chain of intentions” display organized by the Office of First Year Experience. Sebastian summed up the general response from students when he said “I know that this stuff doesn't just happen organically. This is the result of the hard work of people like the LGBT Center, as well as those doing work around the nation like our dear Janet Mock. I just want to give a huge thank you to those who organized and ran Pride Week, in addition to those whose funding helped make it all possible.”

As the LGBT Center works to create an open and welcoming environment for LGBT students, the community spirit displayed by PRIDE Week festivities and participants reminds us that such inclusion and celebration of identities can have a huge effect on students. “It has certainly been an important an impactful week that I will not forget.”

Other Pride Week events included a discussion of the criminalization of HIV status, a library exhibit honoring Bayard Rustin, and a Pride dance.

Check out all of the pictures here.

For a full schedule of events, visit here.

To see all our Pride Week sponsors, visit here.

For more about Janet Mock, visit here.