The Pride Student Union is asking UF students to peer through the looking glass to learn more about the LGBT community’s Pride History Week.
With each day coinciding with a decade in the LGBT history, the Pride Student Union has planned a series of events to acknowledge its past and celebrate National Coming Out Day on Friday.
“I want this week to expose the extensive national history of the queer community beyond the mainstream gay rights movement that many are already aware of,” said Damian Gonzalez, internal vice president for Pride Student Union.
The week kicked off Monday with a discussion on being queer and religious, he said. Taking each day decade by decade, the Pride Student Union will use the rest of the week to explore other identities and topics from HIV and AIDS to dressing in drag.
Gonzalez, a 20-year-old journalism and political science junior, said the week is about breaking down the stigma associated with HIV, bridging the gap between religious and queer individuals and dismantling the gender binary.
The group is providing an HIV/AIDS workshop led by the the Gainesville Area AIDS Project and Queer People of Color United. There will be free HIV testing by WellFlorida. The workshop will take place in Little Hall, Room 217 at 8 p.m today.
The organization is also hosting an event called Drag Ball: Rio Carnival on Thursday at 8 p.m. inside the UF Hillel, where guests are encouraged to dress in drag, he said.
“We want to acknowledge the oppressive forces, but we also want to recognize how vibrant and flamboyant and warm and exciting this community and culture can be,” said Collin Vernay, Pride Student Union president.
Beginning at 10 a.m. Friday, Pride Student Union and LGBT Affairs will host an interactive art gallery on Plaza of the Americas, which is devoted to the experience of coming out, the 21-year old psychology and sociology senior said.
This year, the coming-out event will showcase positive remarks UF students, alumni and faculty have heard when they came out.
There will be two walls with pictures of students holding a whiteboard. On one side will be the discouraging statements and the other will show positive quotes, said Tessa Arthur, a marketing sophomore and ambassador for LGBT affairs.
“These events are so important to the UF community because many scared, closeted high schoolers come to UF, hoping for more inclusion and acceptance,” Arthur, 20, said.
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 10/8/2014]
