Pride Month Moment: Supporting Pride all year

The UAF Nanook Diversity and Action Center gave out free Pride swag during Ice Cream Thursday outside the Wood Center on the UAF campus Thursday, June 9, 2022.
UAF photo by Eric Engman
The UAF Nanook Diversity and Action Center gave out free Pride swag during Ice Cream Thursday outside the Wood Center on the UAF campus Thursday, June 9, 2022. The weekly summer ice cream event is sponsored by the UAF Center for Student Engagement.

June 24, 2022

— By Margo Griffith, UAF diversity officer

As Pride month comes to an end, let’s celebrate Pride the right way, as a university full of love and support, year-round. Support your friends, family, students, co-workers, and fellow community members by showing up for them in the day-to-day and at events and programs during Pride month, LGBTQ+ History Month, UAF’s Pride week, Lavender Graduation, and other UAF celebrations and observances. You can be an active ally by educating yourself, learning LGBTQ+ history, engaging in events, supporting student organizations, or bringing training to your department. UAF Equity and Compliance’s Share, Learn, Grow page hosts links to training, books, podcasts, and many other excellent resources. Here are just a few of our favorites:

The Office of Admissions has a fantastic support resource for LGBTQ2IA+ Students that provides answers to frequently asked questions including how to change to your preferred name and pronouns in UA Online.

Speaking of pronouns, they matter. Practice using ones you may be unfamiliar with, and consider sharing your pronouns in Zoom or your email signature. Adding a UAF Pride email badge to your signature is also a great way to show your pride/support. 

Join or volunteer for Residence Life’s Learning Living Communities such as Stonewall and Impact, which create a safe and inclusive community for students. Support other cultural and identity student organizations such as the UAF Gender & Sexuality Alliance.

Check out the amazing academic programs, namely Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and the accomplishments of our UAF faculty that educate our community and beyond on LGBTQ+ subjects. Congratulations to Dr. Chris Coffman for the recent publishing of her book, Queer Traversals: Psychoanalytic Queer and Trans Theories.

As Pride month comes to an end, we look forward to our July community events such as the Golden Days Parade and look forward to enjoying the Fairbanks Pride march.