While June is Pride Month, students, faculty and staff across the CSU celebrate Pride year-round. From OUTober to GAYpril to LGBTQ+ History Month, see the many ways our universities are recognizing the valuable contributions of the CSU's LGBTQIA community:
- During commencement season, many universities hold affinity graduation ceremonies for various groups, in addition to the larger campus-wide ceremonies. Lavender graduation events honor students who are part of the LGBTQIA community in a fun and inclusive environment.
Photo courtesy of Cal State San Bernardino
- Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year is the CSU San Marcos Pride Center, which will invite campus community members to walk together for the San Diego Pride Parade for the 15th year. (The Pride Center also offered a lineup of events throughout April In celebration of gAyPRIL.)
- For the first time, Sonoma State had a contingent march in the Sonoma County Pride Parade, celebrating the theme, "United Through Diversity."
- Cal Poly Pomona's Pride Center hosted events throughout April and May to promote awareness and equality for the LGBTQIA community, including a prom-like Pride Formal, training for allies to support LGBTQIA students and staff, and a talk presented by CPP sociology professor Anthony Ocampo about his latest book, "Brown and Gay in LA."
- In May, the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Pride Center hosted a queer history exhibition, curated by Cal Poly student assistant Jessica Steward, and in June, the Cal Poly Gender Equity Center hosted its first Queers in Careers panel to help soon-to-be grads navigate career barriers as they begin their post-college lives.
- In April, Cal State Long Beach celebrated its Trans Week of Joy, providing an opportunity for the community to come together and engage in learning experiences in support of transgender and nonbinary students and employees.
- CSU Channel Islands celebrated its PrideFest in March with art, music, dancing, food and a drag show.
- In October, CSU Bakersfield held several events to celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month and OUTober, from a Pride flag-raising ceremony to a volleyball game, as well as dance, yoga and cycling classes. Cal State San Bernardino's Queer and Transgender Resource Center hosted several community-building events, including workshops and recreational activities. Additionally, Cal State Fullerton's LGBT Queer Resource Center celebrated 10 Years of Pride with art, music and the curation of a time capsule.
Photo courtesy of CSU San Marcos
Student Belonging
Each CSU campus offers dedicated resources, often standalone centers, to provide support, community and foster a sense of belonging for students who identify as LGBTQIA:
- San Diego State's Pride Center has a LGBTQIA peer mentorship program, called Pride House, in which upperclassmen are paired with newer undergrads to help them become successful and engaged members of the SDSU community.
- Campus Pride centers and similar affinity groups help students find community and build a support network while they navigate their academic careers at the CSU. A Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student recently shared her own experience in a digital artifact that won second place in the inaugural Cal State CREATE student competition. In her digital piece, How I Found Belonging at Cal Poly as a Queer Woman of Color, the student explored her personal identity and shared how working with Cal Poly's Student Diversity & Belonging collective empowered her to find her own voice and help build community for other students.
Photo courtesy of Cal State Fullerton
CSU Community Pride
Alumni and faculty across the CSU continue to serve as champions for Pride and diversity. Here are just a few ways they are making an impact:
- Chico State nursing alumnus Jonathan Gurrola is creating the change he wants to see in LGBTQIA patient care. As a clinician at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, Gurrola established the first-of-its-kind LGBTQ+, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming patient care guidelines, and helped coordinate a patients' rights policy for the hospital's LGBTQIA patients. With his work, all seven Sharp Healthcare hospitals received a perfect score of 100 from the 2022 Healthcare Equality Index (HEI), an LGBTQ+ benchmarking tool developed by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
- CSU Dominguez Hills chemistry lecturer Barbara Belmont was named in 2022 a LGBTQ+ Trailblazer by Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the publication of the American Chemical Society. The award recognizes her excellence in teaching, as well as activism with Out to Innovate, a professional society dedicated to LGBTQIA visibility in the sciences, as well as mentoring and scholarships for students.
- Chico State alumna Sarah Weiss launched the e-commerce apparel business 'Queer Gear' to offer inclusive and empowering clothing for the LGBTQIA community. "Queer Gear is about representation and awareness, and to allow people to be uniquely, proudly, and unapologetically themselves," Weiss told Chico State Today in April.
- CSU San Marcos alumnus Nathan Serrato founded a wellness and life coaching venture, Queer Conscious, dedicated to supporting the LGBTQIA community. "Not only do we create the environment for people to create authentic connections, but also for them to really look inside of themselves and heal any of the societal or cultural shame that is still present within them," Serrato told CSUSM NewsCenter in September.
- San Francisco State alumnus Juan Acosta was one of 30 youth advocates invited to Washington, D.C., in 2022 for a national forum on young Americans' mental health. Their goal was to improve representation, get organizations to uplift diverse communities and voices, and make mental health resources more accessible.
- A team of Cal State LA faculty members were awarded in 2022 a $100,000 grant from the American Council of Learned Societies to support the continued development of an interdisciplinary LGBTQ digital storytelling map. The arqive is a free interactive, global online map of user-generated LGBTQ stories, history, current events and community resources.
- Cal State Fullerton professor Eric Gonzaba and his research team continue to capture important LGBTQIA historical data as part of the Mapping the Gay Guides project. Since 2020, Gonzaba and his team have been plotting thousands of businesses and bars that were listed in several decade's worth of Damron's gay travel guides.
Take a look back at the CSU's 30 Days of Pride month-long celebration and Portraits of Pride.
Photo courtesy of CSU Bakersfield