2008 MSU Pride Week!

Pride week is the primary LBGTQ community celebration, planned, implemented and sponsored by the various MSU student LBGTQA organizations. Some of the events listed here are educational, but there's plenty of fun, too!

• Friday, 11 April

Club Kid Dance
9:00 pm, Union Ballroom.
Come dance the night away with PRISM at this year's Pride Week Dance! The theme this year is a Club Kid Party, so come dressed in your craziest outfits and be ready for a wild time! There will be refreshments, too!

• Saturday, 12 April

Gay Games & Barbeque
4:00 pm, the Rock.
Come join us for some fun in the sun playing your classic outdoor games. After running around for a while, stay and fill up on some TurkeyMan cuisine. We will have lots of food (with vegetarian options) for everyone to enjoy!
New location because of rain: B15 McDonel Hall.
 

Nervous but Excited
8:00 pm, McDonel Kiva.
Michigan-based folk group Nervous but Excited (Kate Peterson & Sarah Cleaver) is two songwriters, two singers, two guitars, a mandolin, a violin, a few harmonicas, a barrel of harmony, some vaguely choreographed dancing and a lot of laughter. Their original repertoire ranges in topic from smart, introspective narratives to the tactfully politcal... and they still dabble a bit in the love/post-love variety every now and then.   myspace.com/nervousbutexcited

• Sunday, 13 April

Afternoon T
4:00 pm, 441 Union.
Not quite sure what the 'T' in LBGT is? Come join us for high tea, an assortment of other 'T' related foods, and a fishbowl. The fishbowl will be an opportunity for you to confidentially ask all your burning questions and get answers from trans students.

• Monday, 14 April

Ruthie Alcaide: Merging Identites
7:00 - 10:00 pm, Anthony Kiva, room 1279.
Ruthie Alcaide made her memorable debut on The Real World: Hawaii in 1999 as an openly bisexual, native Hawaiian, who during filming had to be sent to rehab. Ruthie will speak about drug and alcohol awareness, diversity, racism, her sexuality and how these identies have shaped her life.   myspace.com/missruthiemusic

• Tuesday, 15 April

Saul Williams
8:00 pm, Fairchild Theater, Auditorium Building, free admission.
The Alliance of LBGT Students and the Black Student Alliance present: Saul Williams Poetry Slam. To thousands of young people across America, Saul Williams has defined and redefined poetry as an accessible, living art form. His third album, The Inevitable Rise and Fall of NiggyTardust, produced by Trent Raznor of NIN, was released in 2007. He contributed to the Not In Our Name pro-peace initiative; his draft of their Pledge of Resistence served as a manifesto of millions across the world who have sought to stop the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Doors open for MSU students at 7:00 pm; general public at 7:45 pm.)   myspace.com/saulwilliams

• Wednesday, 16 April

"The LBGT Community and the 2008 Presidential Election," with Jon Hoadley
8:00 pm, Union, Parlor Room C, second floor. (Location change.)
Jon Hoadley, executive director of National Stonewall Democrats, will speak on the role of the LBGT community in the 2008 Presidential election. National Stonewall Democrats represents LBGT concerns in the Democratic Party, and has state and local chapters across the country. Jon is a 2006 graduate of Michigan State University and former recipient of the MSU Pride Scholarship. He was named executive director of National Stonewall Democrats in 2007 after successfully organizing Equality South Dakota and nearly defeating an anti-gay marriage amendment in South Dakota that was expected to win by a wide margin.

• Thursday, 17 April

Make a Shirt, Wear it Out!
Show your support, increase visibility, build solidarity! Make a T-Shirt expressing yourself as an LBGTIQQA person. Then wear it out on Thursday to show yourself to the Michigan State University community. Join your friends and show a little love! Spectrum will have shirt-making supplies in B15 McDonel Hall from 2:00 - 6:00 pm on Wednesday, April 16.

• Friday, 18 April

MSU Drag Show: Disco Inferno
9:00 pm - 1:00 am, International Center.
Join RING and UAB for this year's Disco Inferno Drag Show! Come with your MSU ID and see all your favorite Drag Kings and Queens live on stage in one of the largest award-winning amateur drag shows in the midwest. Prepare yourself for a psychedillic good time, can ya dig it? (One guest per MSU ID and they must have photo identification.)

• Saturday, 19 April

Film: Transgeneration with MSU alumnus TJ Jourian
2:00 pm, 339 Case Hall.
T.J. Jourian is a consultant, educator and highly-sought keynote speaker on transgender, diversity and social justice issues. He graduated from MSU in 2005 and was a cast member of the acclaimed Sundance documentary series, Transgeneration. The series chronicles the lives of four transgender college students through the course of an academic year. Faced with life-altering choices—about how to deal with parents and society, whether or not to take hormone therapy or undergo sex reassignment surgery—these remarkable students deal with deeply misunderstood identities in unique ways. Join GLFSA for a special Pride Week viewing of the Transgeneration 'festival cut' followed by discussion with TJ.

Pride Week events sponsored by: Spectrum, PRIDE, Trans Action, SGL-SOCIAL, RING, The Alliance of LBGT and Ally Students, Office of Cultural and Academic Transitions, Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives, LBGT Resource Center, GLFSA, ASMSU, RHA, UAB.

— Updated April 14, 2:30 pm —