The Gender Sexuality Center for Queer and Trans Life at the University of Minnesota is hosting Pride events this month, open to the public and campus community.
The GSC will host a Trans Teach-In event at the University Recreation and Wellness Center on June 25, in collaboration with the Women’s Center and the Office of Equity and Diversity Education. The event will be accessible via Zoom.
Rick Hoops, the program coordinator and admin specialist of the center, said the Trans Teach-In will feature a variety of speakers and presentations on research topics, including recognizing misinformation, transgender sanctuary cities and Black womanhood.
“It is kind of an exploration of a couple of special topics that will get us to thinking about research methodologies and how to identify misinformation,” Hoops said. “The first part of the presentation is me talking about my own research for my masters degree that I just finished where I surveyed queer performances in the Twin Cities to just see about their experiences.”
The center is additionally hosting an ice cream social on June 30 at the St. Paul Student Center lawn from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Hoops said the center decided to host their ice cream event at the St. Paul campus to be more inclusive of University students and faculty.
“We do that on the St. Paul campus, particularly because we know that the St. Paul campus is often kind of forgotten,” Hoops said. “We know that there are queer staff faculty and students over there, and so many offices that exist on the East Bank kind of stay on the East Bank.”
The University is planning to host an event booth at Twin Cities Pride Festival, June 28-29, at Loring Park, starting at 10 a.m. and ending at 6 p.m.
The center is planning to host book club events for the remainder of the summer, according to Hoops.
Riley said GSC events are open to anyone, even if they’re not part of the LGBTQ+ community.
“Folks will say, ‘I’m straight, can I come if I want to learn?’” Riley said. “The answer is always that these events and things are open to anyone and everyone who has invested in the uplifting of those communities.”