Spring Break
Pride: reason to celebrate as a community
Issue date: 5/12/09 Section: Forum
Whether you identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or to be more concise, LGBTQ) or as an ally, OSU Queer Pride Week Celebration is a great time to celebrate our diverse and amazing OSU community.
Queer Pride Week is going on this week, May 11 through May 15, with tons of events on everything - really, everything - that could possibly interest you.
All week in the MU Quad, there will be a graffiti wall and an informational table to learn more about resources available to the LGBTQ community. Along with these are sessions all around campus on everything from sex toys to LGBTQ career development.
To top off the week is the infamous Drag Show, a fun, over-the-top celebration that is entertaining for the performers and audience alike.
This week is also a great time to stop by the Pride Center - and no, you do not have to identify as LGBTQ to visit.
With all the activity, many may be asking, "Why do we need to celebrate the LGBTQ community?"
Well, it's not easy being different than the norm (aka heterosexual) on a college campus.
An April 3 news story in The Daily Barometer, "Report says Oregon is home to hostile college campuses," cited a report that indicated over half of gay or transgender Oregon college students concealed their sexual identities.
For those of us who are heterosexual and have never faced discrimination, felt fear or been rejected, or who have had little self-worth because of our sexual preferences, this statistic may not seem like a big deal.
However, it is a problem when students cannot be free to express themselves and be who they are.
So this is our chance to understand more about the community.
Even if we don't identify as LGBTQ, we all know at least someone who does: friends, family, classmates, coworkers. We all can be allies.
We can all be allies by attending events such as these, by visiting the Pride Center, by stopping others from telling defaming jokes, by understanding more about others. The list goes on, but you get our point.
We as a community can support and appreciate what makes us all unique. We can build our understanding of different groups.
Plus, it's just fun. Who doesn't want to watch a bunch of drag queens run around on stage or see lube wrestling in the MU Quad on the way to class?
So go out and celebrate … that's what this week is for.
Editorials serve as a platform for Barometer editors to offer commentary and opinions on issues both global and local, grand in scale and diminutive. The views expressed here are a reflection of the editorial board majority. Disagree? E-mail a letter to the editor or guest column to editor@dailybarometer.com.
Queer Pride Week is going on this week, May 11 through May 15, with tons of events on everything - really, everything - that could possibly interest you.
All week in the MU Quad, there will be a graffiti wall and an informational table to learn more about resources available to the LGBTQ community. Along with these are sessions all around campus on everything from sex toys to LGBTQ career development.
To top off the week is the infamous Drag Show, a fun, over-the-top celebration that is entertaining for the performers and audience alike.
This week is also a great time to stop by the Pride Center - and no, you do not have to identify as LGBTQ to visit.
With all the activity, many may be asking, "Why do we need to celebrate the LGBTQ community?"
Well, it's not easy being different than the norm (aka heterosexual) on a college campus.
An April 3 news story in The Daily Barometer, "Report says Oregon is home to hostile college campuses," cited a report that indicated over half of gay or transgender Oregon college students concealed their sexual identities.
For those of us who are heterosexual and have never faced discrimination, felt fear or been rejected, or who have had little self-worth because of our sexual preferences, this statistic may not seem like a big deal.
However, it is a problem when students cannot be free to express themselves and be who they are.
So this is our chance to understand more about the community.
Even if we don't identify as LGBTQ, we all know at least someone who does: friends, family, classmates, coworkers. We all can be allies.
We can all be allies by attending events such as these, by visiting the Pride Center, by stopping others from telling defaming jokes, by understanding more about others. The list goes on, but you get our point.
We as a community can support and appreciate what makes us all unique. We can build our understanding of different groups.
Plus, it's just fun. Who doesn't want to watch a bunch of drag queens run around on stage or see lube wrestling in the MU Quad on the way to class?
So go out and celebrate … that's what this week is for.
Editorials serve as a platform for Barometer editors to offer commentary and opinions on issues both global and local, grand in scale and diminutive. The views expressed here are a reflection of the editorial board majority. Disagree? E-mail a letter to the editor or guest column to editor@dailybarometer.com.
Note: writers will not reply to comments.
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