Ohio University's 17th annual Pride Week will begin tomorrow with a dance at Casa Nueva.
The theme for the week, Rise of Pridezilla: It Came From the Closet, was inspired by the failing of Proposition 8, an act restricting gay marriage in California last year, said Kate Sayre, a Student Senator on the Senate's LGBT Affairs Commission. The commission coordinates Pride Week each year.
We were just throwing around what would be funny to play off that
and it became Rise of Pridezilla Sayre said. Other than that we wanted to take a lighter approach on the week.
Pride Week began in 1992 at OU as Visibility Week, but was renamed a few years later to connect with National Pride Month, which occurs in June, said Mickey Hart, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center.
Spring is a great time where lots of new energy comes to campus
Hart said. For many people who are LGBT
it's important for them to think about where they are in their process
but also to take pride in who they are and for non-LGBT people to really connect and better get to know LGBT people.
Hart also said this year Pride Week will hold more outside acts than ever before, including keynote speaker Robyn Ochs, who also spoke at OU last year during Pride Week. This year, Ochs will speak about human identity and sexuality.
It's a program that explores how different researches have attempted to map or explain sexual orientation
Ochs said. Then we do an exercise that gives us anonymous information about ourselves and we look at the data together. It shows the amazing and beautiful diversity of human beings.
Pride Week is co-sponsored by ALLY, Empowering Women of Ohio, Open Doors, SHADES, Student Activities Commission, Tau Beta Sigma, the Women's Center and the LGBT Center.
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Culture
Mallory Long
