Erick Fortiz asked Michael Isajiw to Queer Prom with a chocolate, vanilla-frosted cupcake.
Fortiz, 20, said he didn’t want to go overboard.
“Will you go to prom with me?” the Gigi’s Cupcakes box read.
“I was really nervous,” the UF business management sophomore said. “I was afraid he was going to say no.”
The 18-year-old Santa Fe College veterinary technology student said yes.
They were among a crowd of about 60 people who attended the masquerade-themed prom at the Graham Hall Gallery on Wednesday night.
The event was part of a monthlong celebration for Pride Awareness Month, hosted by the Pride Student Union.
The free event encouraged attendants to wear masks. Awards were given for cutest couples and for the “freshest dresser.” Instead of electing a prom king and queen, PAM royalty were elected.
Fortiz, who helped organize the event last year, said this year’s theme represents the suppression individuals feel from hiding their sexuality.
During the event, everyone would be asked to take off their masks to represent the unveiling of who they are, he said.
“We don’t have to hide behind a mask,” he said. “We don’t have to hide our identities. We can be open about who we are.”
Forty-five minutes into the event, couples and friends hit the dance floor as colorful lights and a DJ made it feel like prom.
Andy Mel (left), a 19-year-old sustainability studies major, dances with Iso Jones (right), a 22-year-old zoology major, to Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" at the Pride Awareness Month's Queer Prom. The pair won the cutest couple award for their dance moves.
Alexandra Serrano, the director of the prom, said she’s been planning the event since Fall.
In high school, Serrano said she thought it was unfair that some students didn’t get to enjoy prom with a significant other.
“I wanted this to be a space for people to be comfortable, regardless of society’s standards,” the 22-year-old UF animal science senior said.
Savanna Cabrera, 19, won one of the cutest couple awards.
During the couple’s dance to “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion, the UF zoology freshman Skyped with her girlfriend and danced.
Cabrera didn’t attend her high-school prom because she said it would’ve been uncomfortable going with her girlfriend.
The prom, she said, was more accepting of same-sex couples.
“I felt a little more comfortable attending and dancing, which I never do,” Cabrera said.
Andy Mel, 19, whose preferred pronouns are they/them, and their best friend waltzed across the dance floor during the couple’s dance, where they won the second award for cutest couple.
The prom gave Mel the feeling of being in a movie scene, the UF sustainability studies junior said.
But instead of waiting for a guy to pick up the girl as in most movies, Mel attended prom with their best friend.
“I get my own version of that life, that rite of passage,” Mel said.
Nafisa Choudhury, an 18-year-old biochemistry sophomore, grabs Steven Remington, a 19-year-old computer science sophomore, to kiss him in front of a SNAP! photo booth at the Queer Prom, put on for Pride Awareness Month on Thursday night in the Graham Hall gallery. Choudhury came with her LGBTQ+-identifying friend to meet new people.
