The PRIDE Club at Wayne State College shares their purpose and other details about the club through their weekly meetings on Mondays at 6 p.m.
“I like the little community we have on campus, and it’s super fun to just hang out with people once a week that are like you,” Aubrie Erickson, secretary of PRIDE Club said.
President of the PRIDE club, Kaitlyn Michaelson, expresses how fulfilling the role has been throughout her senior year.
“Having a space to come to each week, this year especially, has been pretty special. Getting to be the president, getting to provide this safe space has been really rewarding,” Michaelson said. “My favorite part about PRIDE Club is coming together each week and having a space where we all know that we’re safe while we’re here because we’re all either part of the community or we’re allies.”
The PRIDE Club strives to offer the representation of queer students on campus through building a welcoming community.
“With PRIDE Club existing, people can see themselves on campus and they can understand they are accepted on campus by some people, even if it’s not by everybody,” Erickson said.
Creating a space for students to be themselves and educating others on topics such as PRIDE flags or different sexual identities is important to the PRIDE Club.
“We are here to educate others, like faculty, other students, the general public and everyone who’s interested. We can educate them on things like PRIDE flags, like we did tonight with the presentation, or provide entertainment, like the drag show in the spring that we host,” Michaelson said.
Several events are held throughout the year to expand their outreach to the community on campus.
“We will be doing a table for Transgender Day of Visibility. We’ll be handing out pamphlets with information about transgender identities and we will have pronoun pins to pick up. We will be hosting a drag show in May. That’s our biggest event, that’s what will be the most effort, so we’ve already started planning for that,” Michaelson said.
“We will invite performers from Lincoln, Omaha and Norfolk to have a show for students to attend,” Michaelson said.
Through events and meetings, PRIDE Club members at WSC push to live out their message of “people respecting individuals’ diversity and equality.”
