Ohio University Student Senate will be loud and proud as they host Pride Week, starting Monday, featuring guest speakers, socials and educational events on LGBTQA issues and focus on inclusion.
The theme of the week is “Break Out Of Your Shell,” which Taylor Hufford, commissioner of LGBTQA Affairs and a sophomore studying athletic training, said she hopes brings individuals of all communities together.
The week will kick off with a Pride flag being raised in front of Cutler Hall and an event on Monday called “Out and About,” where there will be music, food and submitted artwork featured.
On Tuesday, Kye Allums, the first openly-transgender Division I basketball player, will be speaking to a crowd at Ping Center.
One of the goals that Hufford and Paige Klatt, vice commissioner of LGBTQA Affairs and a sophomore studying communications and human development, sighted is to bridge the gap between athletics and the LGBTQA community.
“Athletes in social media and coming out in the LGBT community has been really big lately,” Hufford said. “We really thought if we could get the athletic community from OU involved, it would really be an awesome way to bring the community together.”
Another issue the week hopes to talk about is OU’s work in creating a preferred-name policy. The policy will be a way students can change the way they are addressed in class and in school documents. Hufford said they hope to talk about the policy itself, as well as collect feedback.
“(The policy would) give (students) the opportunity on all the university documentation … and even on class rosters to have whatever name they preferred to be called by, to have that listed, so that way they don’t get purposefully ‘outed’ in a class,” Klatt said.
The week will end with a social at Jackie O’s Pub & Brewery, 24 W. Union St.
“It’s great to educate but it’s also good to be in that social aspect and take what knowledge you’ve gained from the educational experiences and programs and be able to have fun out in public with your friends,” Klatt said.
The two commissioners said they have been planning the week’s theme and events for months and have reached out to other LGBTQA organizations for input, including Delfin Bautista, director of the LGBT Center.
Bautista said they are hoping to see an impact on the relevance of LGBT spaces on campus, as well as celebrate not only tragedy, but triumph.
“Given the lack of spaces for the (LGBT) community here in both the university and within Athens, just carving out a week where people can be out and proud, and ‘we’re here, we’re queer’ cheer, it’s exciting,” Bautista said.
Hufford and Klatt said they also don’t want the “A” to be silent throughout the week’s celebration.
“Our community includes our allies,” Hufford said. “We would not be anything if we did not have those allies to help us and support us.”
Klatt and Hufford said they are looking forward to the week’s events, hoping to put an emphasis on education, but also on celebration of the LGBTQA community, and the efforts someone can make on campus.
“As we like to celebrate our individual letters on the spectrum, it’s great to celebrate us as a whole as well,” Hufford said.
@reb_barnes
rb605712@ohiou.edu
