Tuesday, Feb. 25 was the UT Pride Center’s 10th anniversary. The center celebrated with a party in the Humanities Plaza and gave away certain items such as shirts, pins, stickers, bracelets and cupcakes.
The Pride Center itself is one of the symbols of UT’s commitment to making campus more diverse, and it is also a safe space for many students, staff and faculty who may be in the LGTBQ+ community or who are allies with the community.
The Pride Center values educating the UT community to make Vols more aware of all aspects surrounding sexuality and gender, empowering students in the UT and LGTBQ+ community to be more comfortable with themselves and others and connecting students and faculty with one other.
Additionally, the Pride Center also offers space for students to study.
A decade ago, the Pride Center was simply an idea that was brought up by two UT faculty members, professors Donna Braquet and Bharat Mehra. They interviewed UT students, staff, faculty and alumni who identified within the LGBTQ+ community and found that there needed to be a place on campus where those in the community could feel more welcomed.
The Pride Center banner hanging outside the Center in Melrose Hall at 915 Volunteer Blvd on Monday, September 30, 2019.
After years of advocating, the Pride Center, then called the OUTreach: LGBT and Ally Resource Center, opened on Feb. 25, 2010.
Nowadays, the Pride Center puts on several events each school year, including National Coming Out Day celebrations on Oct. 11, writing workshops, panels that discuss race and sexuality, film screenings and a plethora of other gatherings. All of these events help promote diversity and allow students to make connections with others in the LGTBQ+ community, creating a sense of belonging and fellowship.
Bonnie Johnson is the coordinator for the Pride Center. She handles programming and helps facilitate services offered to students through the center and other organizations.
Johnson hopes to continue the Pride Center’s mission and help the entity grow.
“We’re really hoping to get a new space so that we can continue to not only serve and grow our programming, but also the amount of students that we are able to serve; have a larger community space, continue to collaborate with other offices,” Johnson said.
Johnson added that primarily, the Pride Center aims to create and promote diversity awareness on campus, as well as a space where students can feel safe being who they are.
Ciara Gazaway is a graduate assistant at the Pride Center and is working on her master’s degree in the College Student Personnel program here at UT.
Gazaway said that the main reason that the Pride Center is still standing today is because of the students who find a community within the center’s walls. Without the students that attend the center’s events or just go to the center to hang out, the Pride Center might not still be here on campus.
She added that the fact that the center is celebrating 10 years at UT shows what “the power of standing up for what you believe in” can accomplish, emphasizing that the students who do utilize the Pride Center as a resource are a large part of that.
“We have had a lot of struggles, and there have been times where the doors almost had to be closed, but the students have kept us here. They are the heart of the space and the reason the PC is still standing,” Gazaway said.
The Pride Center has been a safe space for many here on campus since its creation. Those that help make the center what it is today hope that it will remain a safe space for LGBTQ+ Vols and allies of the LGBTQ+ community so that the Pride Center can keep educating others on diversity and inclusion on campus.
