The Pride Festival was held from April 2-4 at the Taylorsville Redwood Campus. Spearheaded by Coloring Outside the Lines and co-sponsored by multiple other groups, the event centered on issues related to homosexuality.
Monday’s event was called Breaking Stereotypes. Jonathan Stowers, an associate proffessor at Salt Lake Community College, spoke to an audience of about two dozen people about the importance of discourse, meaning talk or conversation.
“Discourse is how society decides what is normal,” Stowers said.
To illustrate the point about stereotypes, Stowers discussed the notion of Barack Obama always being referred to as the United States’ first black president.
“That is all that he gets called,” Stowers said. “Why isn’t he referred to as our 44th President?”
Stowers also talked about some of the problems that gays have in society today,such as the fact that people can still get fired from their jobs for being gay.
After Stowers had concluded, a panel discussion was held. Crystal Harris, Kirk Critchlow, Amber Oldham, Miranda Perry and Leka Heimuli discussed their experiences with homosexuality.
“I was miserable until I came out about being gay,” Harris said.
The panel talked about diversity in Utah and about being gay. Like Harris, Critchlow talked about being happier since he came out. The panel held the audiences attention for an hour.
On Tuesday at the Lair in the Student Center there was an event called “Speed Friend-ing,” a social activity that gave a chance for people to meet and talk to someone they may not normally talk to.
Wednesday was the final day of the festival. It included a PFLAG presentation (Parents Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Health and Wellnes Services conducted a forum at 12 p.m. and the movie “But I’m a Cheerleader” was shown after the forum.
