East Central Texas News

NMSU to celebrate LGBTQ+ diversity on campus with Pride Season events

New Mexico State University’s LGBT+ Programs will close out its 2023 Pride Season with four events that aim to celebrate the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community on campus.

The events kick off Friday, March 31, with Transgender Day of Visibility. From 9 to 11 a.m., NMSU community members can stop by LGBT+ Programs’ office in Corbett Center Student Union, Room 208, for food, fun, games and a celebration of transgender, nonbinary and gender-diverse Aggies.

From 11 a.m. to noon, a panel of students, faculty and staff will lead a discussion about their experiences as transgender and nonbinary Aggies in Corbett Center Student Union’s east ballroom on the third floor.

Zooey Sophia Pook, director of LGBT+ Programs, will moderate the discussion. Panelists will include Ana López, director of NMSU’s Chicano Programs, Dae Romero, a visiting professor of communications studies, Lore Falls, a student program coordinator for LGBT+ Programs, and two students from Gender Diverse Aggies, a student group that promotes gender diversity and the expression of all genders.

“Transgender and nonbinary people make up such an amazing part of the NMSU community, and for students to have role models like Dr. Ana López, Dae Romero and Lore Falls — who they can look up to and seek guidance from — is such an important piece of visibility and representation,” Pook said.

The annual Pride Season Drag Show will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 5, at Corbett Center Student Union's outdoor stage. Spacee Kadett, a performer based in Los Angeles, will host the show. The performance lineup features three professional performers, Harlee qylc, Vilette Stratton and Rosita Thorne, and three student performers, Leon Neon, CeCe Knight Jones and Triple X, among other performers. 

“Our young performers are the most important people in the show,” Kadett said. “My own first experience as a drag king was many years ago at my alma mater, Oakland University, in Michigan. I was inspired by student performers I had seen the previous year, and it truly changed my life.”

Pook said this year’s show promises to be a powerful experience, especially as LGBTQ+ individuals are increasingly coming under attack.

“Despite so much hostility and ignorance toward LGBT+ people in the country right now, we have three graduating performers who will help us lead this show and another seven performing – many of whom have never performed before,” Pook said. “Our community is amazing, and we are a vibrant and important part of the NMSU culture.”

The show is free and open to the public. Commemorative shirts will also be available in limited number.

A screening of the 2022 film “Sirens” will be held at 7 p.m. April 18 in NMSU's Creative Media Institute theater in Milton Hall, Room 171. The documentary, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, chronicles the rise of an all-female metal band in Lebanon.

Pride Season concludes May 5 with the 2023 Rainbow Graduation ceremony, which honors graduates and their accomplishments and contributions to the LGBTQ+ community. Recipients will receive a rainbow stole. López will deliver a keynote address during the ceremony, which will begin at noon in the Garcia Center courtyard and feature music by the Kuban.

Students must email lgbt@nmsu.edu by April 14 to participate in the ceremony and receive a stole.

“I think this Pride Season is really special,” Pook said. “We have done so many unique things and celebrated so much of what makes our community amazing: our diversity, our creativity and our resilience.”

Pook added that all Pride Season events are collaborations with various NMSU programs, departments and organizations, including Chicano Programs, Black Programs, the American Indian Programs, the Asian and Pacific Islander Program, the Associated Students of NMSU, the Creative Media Institute, the International Club and NMSU’s Borderlands and Ethnic Studies program.

For more information about Pride Season, follow LGBT+ Programs on Instagram @nmsu_lgbt. 

Original source can be found here