TQ Student Union will host the LGBTQ Pride Parade Saturday at Trinity Park from 1 to 4 p.m. The event will include musical performances by Taylor LaValley and Dead Mangoes as well as other guest speakers.
The walk will start from the park and work its way on campus and back to the park, according to its Facebook page. The event aims to celebrate the LGBTQ community.
“We are still in the process of preparing for this event,” said President of the LGBTQ Student Union and English writing arts major Sean Kessler.
Therefore, Kessler and other members in the organization are still working on it.
“For a long time, the community was very separated,” he said. “We were not really talking to each other.”
He also said although there are some smaller groups in the LGBTQ community, they are still not closely linked together. For that reason, Kessler believes the idea of the LGBTQ Pride March has been fantastic.
“This event would help to bring our community together, and people have one place to go, especially for young people,” Kessler said.
In addition, Kessler said the LGBTQ community has become more accepted than it has in the past.
“In the past, it was not a unified community, so hopefully the idea of this would help to kick-start that,” he said. “And in the future, we could actually make it an official event.”
Kessler also said some people look at it and think it is just a parade, but Plattsburgh Mayor James Calnon is going to march with them.
“People are going to show us support,” Kessler said. “Hopefully, it also means that we could make a better community.”
He said students should expect this event to get bigger and better for the community.
“I hope we can have visibility because part of the issue is that people are here, but they are not visible,” Kessler said. “What I mean is that there are a lot of LGBTQ students who feel like they are alone.”
Because of this event, Kessler believes people can feel free and comfortable to join the community.
“We are here,” he said. “You could be with us if you want to join in.”
He also said the goal of the event is not only to make students feel more comfortable in the community, but to also relieve students’ stress.
“I think this event is a great chance to show people that you are not alone,” freshman business administration major Deki Namgyal said. “It would be a good opportunity to bring people together, and after this event, we could have a better community.”
Namgyal also hopes in the future, people will be more open and proud of who they are.
“The LGBTQ Pride Parade will be the first kind of landmark for this area,” PSUC Title IX Coordinator Butterfly Blaise said.
She said the unique part about this event is that it ties the Plattsburgh community and some of the community members who work in the nonprofit field. And she said it is the collaboration between community partners.
“It is going to be an opportunity to meet lots of different not just members of the community but the organization as well,” Blaise said.
She said the event will be a great idea to bring people together.
“It’s going to be a great celebration and a visual presentation of our community,” Blaise said.
Blaise believes there is a lot of work to do in terms of increasing awareness for harassment and discrimination, increasing resources and increasing support for members of our community who have experienced such discrimination and violence.
“This march is a step in the right direction of connecting people,” she said.
She pointed out the importance of networking as well because it could build a connection between people.
“Hopefully this event will build community and campus connection, and we can find a new way to do it better,” Blaise said.
Email Cardinal Points at fuse@cardinalpointsonline.com
