The Stonewall Resource Center (SRC) hosted Pride Week this past week in conjunction with several student organizations, including Queer People of Color (QPOC), Trans at Grinnell (TaG) and Aero-Ace Spectrum Support Network (ASSN). The week’s programming balanced remembrance and activism with celebrating and encouraging queer joy.
Micho Adler, assistant director of intercultural affairs and LGBTQIA+ student specialist said that one reason the event was held in February was to space out SRC events. In years past, Pride Week was planned in April to be closer to Pride month, which is June, however this puts it around the same time as the club QPOC drag show.
“We chose this week also because Feb. 14, we thought it would be fun to have something, you know, fun and rainbow-y in February when it’s typically dreary,” Adler said. Additionally, he stated that Pride Week is especially relevant right now — and especially in Iowa — in the context of anti-trans legislation. Adler cites Pride week as a source of “joy and solidarity” in the face of erasure.
Another prominent theme of this year’s Pride Week is remembering Grinnell queer history and leaving something behind for Grinnellians in the future. Morgan Smith `26, SRC student coordinator said, “Something that we emphasize a lot at the SRC is like, the history of the SRC, but also the history that we’re making.” Both Adler and Smith touched on building institutional memory in terms of queer Grinnellians, and spoke to how limited the documentation of past queer Grinnell organizations is.
Rowan Hutchinson `24, TAG co-leader, stated that the history of queer people at Grinnell is often hard to find. “Sometimes it requires talking to people, hearing oral histories and just working with what we have and trying to do our best to create traditions where things might be lacking, because they didn’t exist or we don’t know about them,” he said.
Hutchinson also emphasized the group effort that went into developing the programming for Pride Week. He said that while typically the student organizations operate separately for event planning, for Pride Week many came together.
“I really liked that this was kind of a collaborative thing trying to connect all the different communities on campus.” Hutchinson said. “All the different student organizations as well as people who might not necessarily consider themselves a part of the student organization but are queer Grinnellians.” Oliver Schoenborn `24, also TAG co-leader, added that Joteria night, hosted by Latinx/e student specialist Adriana Torres, was an event highlighting TAG history, QPOC history, and SRC history all in the same place.
Chikako Inoue `26, QPOC co-leader, stated that part of their role in the planning process was bringing their own culture to Pride Week. Speaking of the role of QPOC in planning, including other co-leader Angel Arroyo `26, they said, “We play the role of bringing our culture into the week, because Pride Week is pretty much like white American culture.”
“Recently this year, we’ve been creating SRC murals and TAG murals, physical items and evidence that we can have for future generations of queer Grinnellians to look at and see that there were queer Grinellians before you, and that there will be people after you as well,” Schoenborn added.
On Friday, Pride Week concluded with Pride Bash. Of this event, Adler said, “we wanted something that was surreal and silly and like elementary school carnival slash birthday party.”
