UW-Madison celebrates 'Pride Month' with pride picnic, drag exhibit, and activist guides
An LGBT organization at the University of Wisconsin–Madison recently hosted a 'pride picnic' near the conclusion of Pride Month.
The programming also included a ‘kindness’ rock painting activity and a set of rainbow chairs.
An LGBT organization at the University of Wisconsin–Madison recently hosted a “pride picnic” near the conclusion of Pride Month.
Attendees received lunch and information about LGBT-based resources, according to WMTV. Sanders Weinberg, the program coordinator for the UW-Madison’s Gender and Sexuality Campus Center (GSCC), described the picnic as “just our way of celebrating Pride Month.”
The programming also included a “kindness” rock painting activity and a set of rainbow chairs, WMTV reports. One student told the outlet that the chairs “celebrate and show UW’s alliance with the pride movement and the pride picnic.”
Currently on display at the school’s Memorial Union is an exhibit featuring a drag queen and AIDS activist.
Morgan Morris, co-president of the Pride Society, an LGBT student organization at UW-Madison, said that with the evolving legal landscape surrounding DEI, “[p]ride will be different” as a result.
“It [will be] a bit scarier, but also a bit braver,” Morris added, according to The Daily Cardinal. “Now more than ever we need community. I think we fight through celebration and joy.”
Morris added that “a lot of funding” is going to be cut from LGBT organizations. The GSCC still receives funding from UW-Madison Student Affairs.
According to its website, the GSCC promotes progressive gender ideology using student and state resources.
The GSCC’s website encourages students to change their legal name and gender marker through a “Name Change Informational Packet.” It also promotes a volunteer program called “VolunQueer!” aimed at getting students involved with GSCC-sponsored events and activism.
In addition, the website advertises an “LGBTQ+ Perspectives training” for faculty and staff. According to the site, the program is designed to “increase your skills, confidence, and resources in making UW LGBTQ+ inclusive.”
GSCC’s resources also include a pronoun guide and a map of “all-gender restrooms.”
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Campus Reform reported last year about classes offered at UW-Madison on LGBT issues, including a class called “Gender, Sexuality, and Performance: Madison Trans and Queer Performance Activism.”
Campus Reform has contacted the University of Wisconsin–Madison for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
