Each semester the Gender and LGBTQIA Center hosts a large pride festival on campus. Members of the campus community can enjoy various activities as a community and collectively celebrate their identities.
The Gender and LGBTQIA Center (GLC) will hold its annual Spring Pride event on Friday, April 12 in Young Commons. The event is open to the Elon community, with the purpose of helping to educate the community on LGBTQIA identities.
This year the event lead, Rachel Coughlin, came up with the theme “Flower Power Spring Pride.” Coughlin is a senior music production and recording arts major and has worked at the GLC for the entirety of their Elon career. They are the events manager at the GLC.
“Since this is my last semester, I wanted to go all out for this event. After brainstorming, I decided that the theme for Spring Pride would center around flowers,” said Coughlin ’24.
The event will have a Paint Your Own Flowerpot activity and a Tissue Paper flower-making station. In collaboration with the GLC, the Office of Sustainability is joining and hosting a trivia activity surrounding queer ecology, intersectional environmentalism, and queer environmentalists. WSOE will also be there as the DJ.
An educational element will also be incorporated to the social element. There will be a Queer Flower Zine that details flowers/plants that have historical significance to the LGBTQIA community. For example, Rose and Lavender. Rose was used by photographer Kristin Cofer in “The Rose Project.” Roses came to represent diversity, beauty and love in the LGBTQIA community.
Lavender is a powerful symbol that gained its popularity during the Lavender Scare, in reaction to the homosexual witch-hunt of the 1950s. It also represents Lavender Graduation, a celebration of LGBTQIA students graduating in 2024. Elon’s Lavender Graduation is Friday, May 10th from 5 – 7 p.m. in Alumni Gym.
“I appreciate the GLC and couldn’t have asked for a better on-campus job for the past four years,” Coughlin said. “I get to work with amazing people and plan amazing events. What’s better than that? They have supported me throughout my Elon journey, and I am forever grateful for this experience.”