Faculty, alumni, and students gathered to celebrate Pride at PLU this past Wednesday, June 26. This year’s Pride event was marked by folks gathering in Red Square to commemorate celebrating the queer community as a PLU campus. Despite the potential for rainy weather, guests participated in the raising of the LGBTQ+ flag, enjoyed themed food and activities, and community engagement time.
Many students and faculty have retired off campus for the summer, making community engagement harder to accomplish. However, PLU’s pride event made it possible to bring those still in the area together for a short celebration.“…we don’t really have a whole lot of events during the summer on campus for staff, faculty, and students, so it’s in part just a nice opportunity to get people together at all during summer when we can all be kind of scattered,” said host Magdalena Stickel, Assistant Director and Confidential Advocate for the Center for DJS.
While guests visited they were encouraged to participate in table activities, including creating zines and queer affirmation posters. “There’s a lot of queer history to zines and making zines,” says Stickel. Among the LGBTQ+ flag decorations placed on tables were Pro-Palestinian liberation zines, made by the sexual justice organization Pleasure Pie, depicting queer voices. The zines reminded attendants of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine in Gaza, taking the event to a different level of education. In talking on one of their favorite parts of holding the event, Stickel said “…I like the opportunity to raise the flag, yes, but also just bring people together to celebrate the queerness and also talk about the complex theme of what that really means.”
While pride month itself only consists of celebrations in June, Stickel is spirited that this event will extend outside of the month-specific celebration. “My hope is that it’s an event that’s not just a one off of like okay we checked pride off the list, we put the flag up, we’re good,” said Stickel, “but rather an opportunity to connect and build relationships around talking about these issues.”
For more information about queer resources at PLU, check out the Center for DJS webpage.
