Celebrate Pride Month 2021

Posted June 2021

Throughout June, we celebrate Pride Month with a collection of events, stories, and voices that highlight the resilience and impact of the LGBTQIA+ community.

We’re collecting a list of your favorite LGBTQIA+ themed books and movies to share with the alumni community. From favorite Queer poets to beach reads, or cult classics to insightful documentaries, we want them all! Click here to submit your entries. Please note that only book and movie titles will be shared publicly on the alumni blog.

Online events

Ask Me To Dance: LGBTQIA+ Leaders Discuss Inclusion

June 24 | 3 – 4 PM ET | Register
Join our panel of LGBTQIA+ leaders for a conversation about inclusion, and learn how they are working to build cultures of belonging at their organizations.

BU Pride 2021

June 1 – June 30
For the month of June, the LGBTQIA+ Faculty and Staff Network and the Queer Activist Collective are collaborating on a series of virtual events to celebrate our shared identities in the LGBTQIA+ community. Click here to view the entire series of online events.

LGBTQIA+ Speed Networking Online: Pride Edition

Held on June 8 | Registration closed
Celebrate Pride month and meet up with fellow BU alumni who identify as LGBTQIA+ for an hour-long digital speed-networking event on Zoom. You will have three opportunities to network in small groups via breakout rooms, and an optional attendee register will be shared after the event to help you make more connections.

The LGBTQIA+ Network

The LGBTQIA+ Network on BU Connects is for alumni, students, faculty, and staff to connect professionally with others who identify as LGBTQIA+ or as allies. The group provides members with an online space to ask questions, share advice, post job opportunities, comment on threads, and make connections with their global Boston University network.

Webinars on demand

Workshop: On Becoming an Ally

View recording
Boston University’s inaugural Director of Programs for Diversity & Inclusion, Alana Anderson, PhD, shares ways people with societal advantages can support those who are targets of systemic oppression, the importance of being an ally, and the necessary skills to practice allyship. Recorded June 2020.

Intersections: A conversation on layered identities, equity, and leadership

View recording
What happens when historical and systemic oppression negatively impact the characteristics that help define who we are? Jonathan Allen (LAW’19), co-founder of The Leadership Brainery, and Sasha George, Esq. (LAW’16), regional counsel, US Environmental Protection Agency have an in-depth discussion around intersectionality, equity, and leadership. Recorded December 2020

TV’s Pose and the Impact of Black and Latinx LGBTQ Stories

View recording
Steven Canals, co-creator and executive producer of the FX hit series Pose, and COM professors Roy Grundmann and Maura Smith explore Black and Latinx LGBTQIA+ representation in film and television. Recorded April 2020

Marriage Equality: Where We’ve Come From and What’s Next for LGBTQ Equality

View recording
The month of June marks the 6th anniversary of the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage. Hear from alumni and experts as they detail how the Obergefell case can be traced back to law student activism at BU in the 1970s, critical SCOTUS decisions about LGBTQ+ rights since Obergefell, and what’s next in securing LGBTQ+ rights in America. Recorded June 2020

Initiatives at Boston University

Center for Gender Sexuality and Activism
The Center for Gender, Sexuality and Activism (CGSA) at Boston University strives to be a safe space for people of all genders and sexualities. Using a social justice framework, the CGSA aims to end gender oppression and violence, and advocates for the full equality and inclusion of women, queer and trans students. Our dynamic community fosters challenging and open discourse, promotes student activism, and provides resources and education for the Boston University community.

BU School of Medicine LGBTQ Fund
To promote equity and inclusion among LGBTQIA+ students, faculty, and staff. The fund is used to support activities designed to increase the retention of LGBTQ students, faculty, and staff capable of making meaningful contributions to the Boston University School of Medicine learning environment and to support activities by organizations such as BUMC Pride with the purpose of supporting and celebrating the LGBTQ community.

Eric & Neil Stine-Markman Scholarship Fund (BU School of Law)
Dean’s Advisory Board member Eric Stine (’97) and his husband, Neil Markman, endowed the Eric & Neil Stine-Markman Scholarship Fund to provide need-based scholarship awards for LBGTQIA+ students. This scholarship, which is the first of its kind here, reflects their desire to make a BU LAW education accessible and affordable to all LGBTQIA+ students, and they welcome additional support to grow the scholarship and its impact.

The Lavender Fund (BU School of Law)
The Lavender Fund is supported by Dean’s Advisory Board member Daniel Levin (’09,’10) and fellow alumnus Brian Balduzzi (’13,’14), which aims to ensure that students are empowered to build up and connect the LGBTQIA+ community at BU LAW, and support the personal and professional growth of LGBTQIA+ students through access to legal organizations, events, and additional opportunities. A special focus of the Lavender Fund will be on programs and activities that embrace intersectional identities and lift up historically underrepresented LGBTQIA+ voices within the school and the greater legal LGBTQIA+ community.

BU School of Law LGBTQIA+ Fund Challenge
If 100 individuals make a gift of any size to either the Eric & Neil Stine-Markman Scholarship Fund or the Lavender Fund by June 30, 2020, Eric Stine will make an additional $10,000 gift the Eric & Neil Stine-Markman Scholarship Fund!

Queer Activist Collective
The Queer Activist Collective (“Q”) is Boston University’s largest LGBTQ+ student organization dedicated to promoting awareness, visibility, and full inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community. In the absence of an official LGBTQ+ resource center at BU, they strive to connect and provide BU community members with the resources, support, and community they need and deserve. Q hosts weekly programming that includes events such as mental health workshops, sexual health workshops, BU faculty & staff panels, Know Your Rights workshops, game nights, allyship workshops, charity drag shows, and much more. They also work on initiatives as needed to ensure BU is inclusive and the needs of LGBTQ+ students are being met.

Q’s comprehensive LGBTQ+ resource guides, which include resources such as virtual support groups, free therapy options, legal guidance, financial assistance, helplines, upcoming wellness events, and more, can be found at linktr.ee/BULGBTQResources.

News and articles

POV: Taking the Measure of the Stonewall Uprising 50 Years Later
The Stonewall Uprising of June 1969 made people aware that rage is not enough, and gave rise to the planning, organizing, and articulating of a vision that brought about lasting change. J. Seth Anderson writes about the legacy of Stonewall and what it means to celebrate Pride Month.

Article: When It Comes to LGBTQ+ Support, BU Athletics Soars
Terriers are among 10 US institutions given the highest marks for LGBTQ+ inclusion by Athlete Ally, an indication of BU Athletics’ strong support for its LGBTQ+ college athletes. The University is one of just 10 Division I schools to reach the 100 mark this year.

Article: How Testosterone Changes the Voices of Trans Men
In a first-of-its-kind study, led by a then–BU undergrad Graham Grail, trans men undergoing “T therapy” reported that a masculine voice is of utmost importance to their identity. Discover how the voice has many layers, as opposed to having one pure tone.

Article: Schitt’s Creek Star Dan Levy Shares Memories of the Award-Winning Show with BU Students
Schitt’s Creek co-creator, showrunner, and star Dan Levy shares memories of the award-winning show, including the importance of gay representation in character writing, the formative experience of being part of the show, and what he’s working on next.

Article: Opening Doors | Tyler Sit, founding pastor, New City Church
Tyler Sit, founding pastor of New City Church, a United Methodist parish that stresses social and environmental justice, talks to Bostonia about church planting to promote harmony among people—and between people and the planet.

Article: Opening Doors | A Career Spent Fighting for the Rights of LGBTQ+ Individuals
Meet the founder of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) John Ward, whose organization is at the forefront of the crusade for LGBTQ+ rights, fighting in the courts to end discrimination based on sexual orientation, HIV status, and gender identity and expression.

Article: A Silent Epidemic? Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Women Receive Less Post-Cancer Treatment Than Everyone Else
Ulrike Boehmer, a Boston University School of Public Health researcher who studies health disparities in LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people, reveals that cancer poses numerous threats for the LGBT community. Boehmer believes that there might be an epidemic we’re unaware of—aided by health policies that support barriers to care for LGBT people and further intensified by stigma, discrimination, and insensitivity that LGBT people face in healthcare settings.

Article: Transgender College Students Are Up to Four Times as Likely to Experience Mental Health Problems
The largest and most comprehensive mental health survey of college students in the United States reveals that students who identify as transgender, gender nonconforming, genderqueer, and nonbinary face enormous mental health disparities relative to their peers. Sarah Ketchen Lipson, a BU School of Public Health professor, says that there has never been a more important time for colleges and universities to protect and support trans, genderqueer, and nonbinary students.

Article: A Snapshot of How COVID-19 Is Impacting the LGBTQ Community
Many LGBTQ people are poor, have limited access to health resources, and face negative stigma in receiving health services, making them especially vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts weigh in on the difficulties and strengths of the LGBTQ community amid the pandemic.

Article: How To Be an Ally to Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming People in the BU Community
This article covers important tips about how to be a supportive ally, including terminology, pronouns, and more. Originally published in November 2020 by CAS student Evan Gilbert (CAS’22) in honor of Transgender Awareness Week.