Honoring Pride Month and our LGBTQ+ Community

student waving a rainbow fan

Pride Month is the annual celebration of the LGBTQ+ community’s contributions to our society, culture and history. It is celebrated worldwide and recognized at Fresno State each year with a flag raising ceremony. 

Fresno State is dedicated to creating a campus community that includes and honors the LGBTQ+ members of the campus community, during Pride Month and throughout the rest of the year. 

Below is a list of campus resources and organizations for LGBTQ+ individuals and allies to use, join and/or support. 

  • Gender Affirming Care and Counseling Services
    • The Student Health and Counseling Center strives to be a focus of total health and wellness for the entire Fresno State student community. With a continued dedication for ongoing support of all students, the Health Center team has been specially trained in gender identity exploration and concerns that transgender, non-binary, and gender-expansive students commonly experience. 
  • United Student Pride
    • United Student Pride (USP) is an on-campus student organization at Fresno State which offers activities as well as various opportunities for involvement that have both educational and social value. USP seeks to provide a safe, supportive, and welcoming atmosphere for students. USP is open to all students, of all sexual orientations and all gender identities. Follow USP on Instagram. 
  • Queer Literature
    • The Fresno State Library is an inclusive space that offers an array of books, media and other information/resources that explore LGBTQ+ history, theory, literature and art. 
  • LGBTQ+ Programs and Services
    • Fresno State’s Cross Cultural and Gender Center is dedicated to increasing the visibility and awareness LGBTQ+ identities while raising awareness of social misconceptions and creating a safe space for self-exploration of LGBTQ+ individuals. 
  • Q Clothing Closet
    • The Q Clothing Closet exists to provide free clothing to transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals.
  • LGBTQ2+ Studies
    • The LGBTQ2+ Studies Minor introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of Queer Studies that explore Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, and Two-Spirit communities in media, art, literature, activism, health, education, politics, and history both globally and domestically.
  • Rainbow Alumnx and Allies Club
    • The Rainbow Alumnx and Allies Club (RAAC) mission is to promote pride, advance advocacy in the community, and support the LGBTQ+ student population at Fresno State. The RAAC supports various community initiatives and student programs such as the Queer History Archive at the Library and the annual Rainbow Graduation Celebration. The RAAC promotes the holistic efforts of supporting our LGBTQ+ students and allies at Fresno State.
student in graduation regalia

LGBTQ+ History at Fresno State 

Raising of the progress pride flag on campus takes place amid a larger nationwide struggle for LGBTQ+ rights and liberties. Historically, the university has also seen its own LGBTQ+ students fight for visibility and acceptance on campus.

In 1987, after founding the Gay Lesbian Student Alliance (now known as United Student Pride) and building a booth for the group on campus, students faced immediate backlash from their peers, said Dr. Peter Robertson, founding member of the group and director of alumni connections for the Fresno State Alumni Association. 

“I can’t go back and sugarcoat the experiences that I lived through as a student and saw my classmates go through, where it’s [us] being threatened, having people scream Bible verses at you, walking by and spitting on you…It was a very, very emotional, stressful time to be a student,” Robertson said in an interview with The Collegian.

The group’s booth was victim to an arson attack and subsequent acts of vandalism and anti-LGBTQ+ demonstrations.

Despite the initial resistance, United Student Pride has now existed on campus for 37 years.

The university has taken significant strides to become a more inclusive and accepting space for its LGBTQ+ students, including offering an annual Rainbow Graduation Celebration, gender affirming care services at the Student Health and Counseling Center and a newly instated LGBTQ2+ minor.

Learn more about the history of Pride Month in the United States here. 

by MARISA MATA

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Do you have news you would like to share with the community? Let us know! Contact our Communications Coordinator Marisa Mata at 559.278.6560 or marisamata@csufresno.edu to get started!

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