Photo by Conor Walters
The Dj area and photo shoot stand of the Pride event.
By Conor Walters
Staff Writer
During the month of June, Pride events are celebrated amongst people in the LGBTQIA+ community. Penn State celebrates its pride for students during the month of April. This year to celebrate pride, Altoona had its first ever Pride event in the Adler gym.
Outside the event had offered a buffet style of food including pizza, fruit, various desserts, and more. Inside the event there was a DJ blasting music, a Photo Booth with different accessories to add in your picture, and games such as cornhole and spikeball. There were tables offering stickers, magnets, tons of flags, as well as smaller activities to do and a raffle.
Brandon Escala, a fourth year psychology major said “The event really succeeded in giving us a place to be ourselves, escape, and relax.”
Pride for the LGBTQIA+ community is celebrated not as a way to say they are more important than others, but to celebrate the adversity they have overcome. The first Pride was a march on June 28, 1970, to commemorate the one year anniversary of Stonewall. On June 28, 1969, police raided a gay bar called Stonewall Inn, which sparked a riot and protest amongst neighborhood residents as well as patrons of the bar for the next six day, today this moment in history is remembered as the Stonewall Uprising. Since then the LGBTQIA+ community celebrates pride the whole month of June all over the United States.
Pscala’s favorite memory from a Pride parade was in 2019, where he got to help and contribute to putting it all together and said, “I was lucky … to walk it with my family, It was so lovely. I got to meet a few of the drag queens who I still talk to, so I would say that is my number one.”
Pride is essential in the community to allow people to feel like they can be themselves and be accepted. Many areas in the United States, as well as the world still don’t accept those in the LGBTQIA+ community and have laws against them.
Sue Patterson, director of Student Diversity and Inclusion Programming, said “right now in our culture there is so much going on and so many new laws trying to be enacted that are making people suffer, so we are trying to do the other side where we’re starting to celebrate and let people be whoever they are and be excited for them.”
The event held overall was a great way for students from all over to celebrate together before they go home for the summer, and a great way for those to celebrate when they might not be able to when they are home. If not for Pride, and those in the years past who fought for their rights and to be treated equally, many today would not be able to exist freely and be themselves.