This year’s Pride Week festivities will center on “Winning through Inclusion.”
The Texas Tech University Office of LGBTQIA will host the fourth annual Pride Week starting Monday (Oct. 8) with “The Boots, Bows, & Rainbow Ties Gala,” featuring Ronni Sanlo, a well-known educator and higher education consultant.
Throughout the week, activities will be hosted by offices and organizations around campus, including the Risk Intervention and Safety Education (RISE) office, the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and Women's & Gender Studies. All events will focus on the topic of inclusion of the LGBTQIA community and understanding the role of ‘allyship' on the Texas Tech campus and in Lubbock.
“Pride celebrations are important to the LGBTQIA and ally communities, as they give us the chance to pause and recognize the hard-fought progress we have made to live and love as we are,” said Jody Randall, director of the Office of LGBTQIA. “Through these celebrations, we explore the many identities within our community, the partnerships we tap – some which are very familiar and some new and what sorts of experiences our communities are having. Our theme this year was developed based on a partnership with Texas Tech Athletics. Through the guise of competitiveness and our work to strengthen campus inclusivity, we certainly are winning through inclusion.”
Some of the activities taking place throughout the week include:
- Champions of Respect: a discussion about ways to create inclusive spaces throughout the athletic community and within student organizations, 7 p.m. Tuesday (Oct. 9) in the Marsha Sharp Center for Student Athletes classroom.
- Second annual Poetry Slam with Regie Cabico: 8 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 10) in the Matador Room of the Student Union Building (SUB).
- Queer Reels, Real Topics Film Series: “The Queens” Texas premiere: a feature-length documentary that looks at Chicago's female illusion show lounge, The Baton Show Lounge. Mark Saxenmeyer, the director of the film, as well as Tiffany T. Hunter, who is in the film, will take audience questions, 8 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 11) in the Matador Room of the SUB.
- Gender and Gender Identity Colloquium with a keynote address delivered by Mark Daniel Snyder, director of communications for the Equality Federation: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday (Oct. 12) in the Red Raider Lounge of the SUB. Keynote address at 1:15 p.m.
- Glamour and Fame: Texas Tech's Pride Week Drag Pageant benefitting PFLAG Lubbock's Lola Marie Drew Scholarship Program: 7 p.m. Friday (Oct. 12) at Club Luxor.
For a full list of events, check out the Pride Week website.
