Happy Pride Week at the University of Utah!

This week, March 29-April 3, 2021, we celebrate and honor LGBTQIA+ histories, cultures and lives with daily events that allow us all to examine how LGBTQIA+ people lead in many industries and cultural arenas, as well as learn about important issues impacting our communities. This year, Pride Week at the U looks different because of COVID-19. Most events are entirely virtual, and all events have the possibility of remote participation.

Despite the challenges of working under a pandemic, the exciting and inspiring schedule of events for this year’s Pride Weeks is a reflection of the creativity and tenacity of the Pride Week committee—a volunteer committee comprised of over 30 students, faculty and staff working hard for six months to make Pride Week happen.

Pride Week gives us a joyful outlet to come together as a community and recommit ourselves to furthering LGBTQIA+ justice on our campus. To be clear, Pride Week is not about claiming that we as a campus have arrived when it comes to LGBTQIA+ equity and justice. We know that harmful acts against LGBTQIA+ people occur every day on our campus. This includes individual acts of hostility and microaggressions, as well as systems we have in place that disenfranchise LGBTQIA+ students, faculty and staff.

Instead of a claim of perfection, Pride Week is a promise to keep striving to make our campus and our larger community better. Pride Week is a testament to the power of ordinary people—committee members, campus partners, volunteers, administrators—to make the changes they want to see at the university. Pride Week is a celebration of LGBTQIA+ people and all the ways they create more possibility, brilliance and joy in our world, and an opportunity for everyone to learn more about the LGBTQIA+ community.

The committee chose this year’s theme, “Queer at the Intersections,” with the intention to explore the many intersections of LGBTQIA+ lives and cultures, including the ways that gender and sexuality intersect with race and class. You’ll see that intention evident throughout our schedule of events, especially in those that center queer and trans people of color and trans and non-binary people. You’ll see this also reflected in the decision to commit critical resources to our community via Pride Week events such as small grants for artists, clothing in a gender-affirming environment, monetary and donated prizes for competitions, and meals and educational materials for those participating in remote events.

I truly believe there is something for everyone in this year’s Pride Week, be it exploring the gaming industry from a queer lens, learning more about resources for gender transition, connecting with queer and trans student of color campus community, enjoying thought-provoking drag performance that explores racial allyship, getting knowledgeable advice about being out in the workplace and much more.

Check out the full list of events below and on our website.

In addition to these amazing events, there are some new ways to get involved in Pride Week this year that we are especially excited about.

Wrapping the Block U

For the first time, the Block U is beautifully wrapped in colors from the Progress Pride Flag, designed by Daniel Quasar in 2018. In addition to the traditional rainbow pride flag colors, this inclusive flag adds black and brown to signify LGBTQIA+ people of color and the trans pride flag colors. University of Utah student designer, Sarah Larson, adapted the progressive flag to work for the Block U wrapping.

This powerful, mid-campus display of intersectional LGBTQIA+ pride came together with help and support from across campus including Student Affairs, the College of Fine Arts and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.

We hope if you are on campus and able to do so, you’ll show the Block U some love, take a selfie, and share with the hashtag #PrideWeekAtTheU.

New LGBTQIA+ scholarships  

Also new this year, celebrate Pride Week by showing your support for the LGBTQIA+ students by donating to the LGBT Resource Center scholarships. These scholarships recognize the outstanding students who are committed to supporting LGBTQIA+ communities.

We are deeply grateful to the Gomberg family who generously provided a dollar-for-dollar match up to $1,500 and to the Campus Store which pledged $1,500 to this Pride Week scholarship fundraiser. Thanks to these and many other incredible donors, we reached our Pride Week goal of $5,000 before the week even officially began. Our new goal is $15,000 by April 3.

Please consider how you can “gay it forward” and make your donation here.

Pride Partners

In addition to Pride Week events, this year we are also highlighting events being hosted by our Pride Partners—campus partners who have decided to throw their own celebrations adjacent to Pride Week. This includes two student organizations, Inclusive Earth and It’s on Us, which were awarded grants from the committee to host Pride Partner events.

Check out all the fun happening across campus in the spirit of Pride Week here.

Pride Week events

I want to thank our wonderful volunteers from across the university who helped us plan and are helping us execute Pride Week this year. We invite everyone in our U community and the broader Utah community to join us in these events.

Of course, these new ways of showing up with and for our LGBTQIA+ students, staff, faculty, patients and visitors aren’t only happening during Pride Week or Pride Month. The U is firmly committed to its role as a leader supporting its campus and Utah’s broader LGBTQIA+ community in a variety of ways—which is why we consistently rank among the top best colleges in the state for LGBTQ support.

We hope you will learn, laugh and grow with us this week. And, most of all, we hope you will take what you learn into your own circles of influence and continue to celebrate and honor LGBTQIA+ lives in all you do.