Pride Week increases awareness
Flags mark Pride Week
KU’s Queers and Allies celebrates the gay community in a multitude of ways, from speakers and films to a drag show.
By Brenna Hawley (Contact)
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
Queers and Allies celebrates Gay Pride Week with rainbow flags flying from light poles, a film screening, speakers, a queer prom night and the popular drag show.
Stefan Vogler, Overland Park senior and Queers and Allies treasurer, said the goal of Pride Week was to increase visibility for people involved.
“If we show the community we’re here and active, we will educate it,” Vogler said.
Vogler organized Friday’s Annual Brown Bag Drag Show, which he said the group had put on for longer than he could remember. He said it was a fun way to wrap up Pride Week, especially because it was in front of the Kansas Union and people walking by could stop and see it.
Photo by Taylor Miller
Augusten Burroughs, author of Running With Scissors and Dry, came to speak Tuesday as part of Queers & Allies' annual Pride Week celebration. The New York Times bestseller spoke in Woodruff Auditorium and after, signed books and answered questions from fans. Q&A also hosted a cake reception on Wescoe beach, an LGBT Prom Night and this Friday will host its annual Brown Bag Drag show.
“A lot of the community gets some great exposure to a little bit of our culture,” Vogler said.
Vogler said the drag show attracted drag kings and queens from campus and also many from Kansas City. He said they lip sync and some even sang live.
Another new tradition of Pride Week is the hanging of pride flags, which are rainbow-striped flags where each color symbolizes a different aspect of life.
Ashlynn Horras, Knoxville, Iowa sophomore and communications director for Queers and Allies, said the group hung up pride flags last year and they were almost all ripped down by Monday. She said this year, they decided to hang them much higher using a 24-foot-tall ladder.
“We still have people who are ripping down flags, which means we’re not accepted,” Horras said.
Horras said Queers and Allies was working to give more rights to the gay community by adding gender identity to the University’s employment policy. She said that someone listed as transgender could still be fired or discriminated against.
A movement to give more rights to faculty with same-sex partners is underway in University Senate.
Paul Farran, president-elect of Unclassified Senate, said domestic partners of faculty and staff were not covered by the University’s health insurance. He said extending coverage to these partners would benefit the University in recruitment and retention of faculty and staff.
“It would help draw quality applicants who might otherwise not apply,” Farran said.
Farran said making a change like this in University policy would probably take place on all levels because the benefits come from the state, not just the University. He said Senate was creating a task force to examine the benefits and that action wouldn’t take place until next year.
—Edited by Samuel Lamb
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