by Andrew Floor
Capital University’s Pride serves as an advocacy group to promote tolerance and acceptance for all students regardless of their perceived or actual sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. Senior, Justin Poole, has been the president of Pride since the second semester of his freshman year. Poole also brought about and was in charge of a similar group at his high school, and received training from GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network).
“We worked to rebuild the foundation of Pride. It had been a very good organization but somewhere between 2005 and 2009 the organization began to lose a part of itself,” Poole said. “Since then, we have worked to facilitate and organize more LGBT events. We are trying to focus more on our community to get LGBT and Ally Students more passionate for LGBT causes and to build the organization of Pride as an advocacy group.”
As an organization, Pride hosts two main events on campus, one each semester: Ally Week the third week of October, and the Day of Silence in April. Both events are nationally set by GLSEN.
Ally Week serves to identify and support students who are committed to seeing positive change in the LGBT community; they can be non-LGBT as well as LGBT. During Ally Week, people take the ally pledge which is a promise not to use anti-LGBT bullying or harassing terms and to intervene if they see such terms being used. They also pledge to support the safer schools movement.
The Day of Silence is when students take a vow of silence to echo the silence that is caused by LGBT bullying and harassment.
“By taking that vow, we give a voice to those students who are silenced because of their perceived or actual sexual orientation,” Poole said. “It does not matter if one is gay or straight, all people still hear things like “That’s so gay!” and ultimately everybody is affected negatively by those phrases.”
Prior to these big events, Pride hosts discussion workshops that explain current issues affecting the LGBT community and explain the significance of such events. Pride meetings include Safe-Space Moments which allow people to openly discuss in confidence any positive or negative incidences regarding any LGBT bullying and harassment they have witnessed.
“These meetings help to make students aware of issues that they may have not ever encountered before. People have not experienced the same things in life, and by highlighting the issues that people may face, it can give a better understanding and a more clear definition of what we advocate for,” Poole said.
In the months of December and February, Pride is hosting two Fusion Fridays on campus. These are events where local Columbus area colleges and universities come together for food, music and drag performances by Drag Queen, Alexis Stephens.
“We are pushing for a possible Holiday styled Fusion Friday. This will include holiday themed decorations, prizes and Christmas caroling,” Poole said.
Pride is holding a meeting this Thursday, Nov. 15, at 7 p.m. in the Learning Center Room 201 to discuss plans for the upcoming Fusion Friday.
Students interested in joining Pride can email prideatcap@gmail.com for more information. Pride also has a Facebook page – ‘Capital’s Pride’ as well as a twitter handle – CUPrideOrg.
afloor@capital.edu
