BMCC Kicks off LGBTQ Pride Month

October 1, 2015

Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC/CUNY) kicked off LGBTQ Pride Month Tuesday, October 6 with a luncheon and opening address by activist, writer and filmmaker Reina Gossett.

The event was sponsored by the LGBTQ Pride Month Committee, the BMCC Association and the BMCC Auxiliary Enterprise. It was held in Richard Harris Terrace on the college’s main campus and featured a hot buffet.

Michael Hutmaker, BMCC Dean of Student Affairs, opened the event. BMCC Professor Jason Schneiderman welcomed the group, as did Professor David Bahr who told the audience, “As a gay man who came up through the foster care system and has been on my own since age 18, I really know the resiliency of gay youth.”

Professor Brianne Waychoff, advisor for the BMCC LGBTQ Club, reminded students that their participation in many of the LGBTQ Pride Month events could be applied to their co-curricular transcript, which supplements their academic transcript. She said it was a positive sign that the events have gone from being part of “Awareness Month” to “Pride Month.”

Guest speaker Reina Gossett, who is the 2014-2016 Activist-In-Residence at Barnard College’s Center for Research on Women, provided historical context for today’s LGBTQ civil rights movements. She talked about the Stonewall Riots, the link between the Black Panther Party and the Gay Liberation Front in the 1960s, and extended that continuum to the present, noting that, “… actions taken by students in higher education settings today have huge effects on our historical and political landscape.”

LGBTQ Pride Month will present workshops, panels, resource fairs, movies, Safe Zone trainings for faculty and staff, poetry and more.

For a complete listing, click HERE and under View Events by Category, highlight LGBTQ Pride Month.

 

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • LGBTQ Pride Month opens with buffet celebration in Richard Harris Terrace
  • Activist Reina Gossett delivers Opening Address
  • Panels, workshops, film screenings and other events to follow

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