Coming Out Month

COURTESY PHOTO

An important day within the LGBT+ community has always been Coming Out Day, among others. This year, Coming Out Day was Thursday, October 11. To celebrate, PSU Pride here on campus decided to host five events for every week in October. Two of those events have passed. But three more are yet to come.

Andrew Dawe of PSU Pride sat down with me to talk about these events and more regarding the club as a whole. The next event, the Equality Prom, will be held from 7-10pm in the HUB Hage Room this Friday, October 19.

According to Dawe, the Equality Prom will be a semi-formal event meant to mimic a prom, while being a safe place for members and allies of the LGBT+ community. Dawe and the Pride club, as always, welcomes everyone they can to participate.

The Equality Prom will also be a night to vote for participants to receive one of four gender neutral terms of royalty. Ranking highest to lowest, they are as follows; Their Majesty, Their Highness, Their Excellence, and Their Grace. For example, the recipient of the title will be announced as, “Their Highness [name].”

The next event Dawe informed me about was the Queeraoke; happening on the 26th from 7-10pm in the HUB Hage Room. As the name suggests, this event will be a karaoke event; during which participants are encouraged to choose from a set list of instrumental songs or choose their own instrumental songs to sing along to.

The last event for the month of October is not so much an event as it is a regular meeting in PSU Pride. The day before Halloween falls on a Tuesday, which is when PSU Pride holds their weekly meetings at 7pm, in the Student Senate Room of the HUB. On talking about the event Dawe had this to say, “Our club meetings and events are open to anyone, not just people of the LGBT+ community, but to everyone.”

The importance of this month-long event in Dawe’s words is to, “Bring attention to Coming Out Day, give members a platform in which they come out to a supportive community, and, of course, to represent the club.”

As in previous years, PSU Pride serves the Plymouth community to provide a supportive, accepting platform and bring people together to celebrate who we are. Dawe admits that PSU Pride didn’t always host Coming Out Month. It used to be a week of events falling on the week Coming Out day was. However, PSU Pride had a suggestion from their Treasurer to make it a month-long event, which would take a lot of pressure off the members and allow members of the PSU community more time to plan to attend more events if they wanted to.

As the month goes, Dawe hopes to see anyone who is interested in having a gay time with a community of friends who are there to celebrate all the different kinds of people we are. Don’t forget the Queeraoke or the Equality Prom as the month goes on, and as always, meetings for PSU Pride are held every Tuesday at 7pm in the Student Senate Room of the HUB. Also keep an eye out for PSU Pride’s very own Drag Race, which is planned for next semester. Details and more event dates can be found on PSU Pride’s Facebook page for all who are interested.