By Em Wasserman-Vaianella 

June is Pride month, and we’d like to take the time to remind everyone to both celebrate and remember our community this year. Pride month takes place each year in commemoration of the Stonewall Riots of June 1969, which paved the way for gay rights movements around the world. The goal of Pride is to promote equity and raise awareness of challenges faced by the LGBTQIA+ community. We must also remember equity WITHIN our community. The LGBTQIA+ community, as suggested by the long acronym, is not a monolith. Pride wouldn’t exist without the powerful advocate, a black trans woman, Marsha P. Johnson. Our movement requires more than just one voice, and as we bring attention to the needs of our large and beautiful community, let’s continue to remember the inclusion of people who experience intersecting oppressions and experiences. 

In honor of Pride, SUNY Empire State College would like to announce a new subgroup of the DEI committee, the LGBTQIA+ Community Task Group. This task group is comprised of faculty, staff, and students of SUNY Empire with the goal of identifying college policies and procedures that support a more inclusive and welcoming environment for our community. We have quite a few tasks ahead of us and in our brief existence, we’ve done a lot of behind-the-scenes work to ensure a better future. We still have quite the journey ahead of us and we look forward to your input. 

Recently, we supported the introduction of a chosen name policy so our students can be represented more authentically. We are committed to offering suggestions to the college as this new policy rolls out so we can support our community’s representation and limit harm caused by misgendering and dead naming. Our small and mighty task group has suggested reviewing previous faculty, staff, and student surveys to provide suggestions for the future so that we can collect data pertinent to our community and identify areas for improvement and growth. We will also be providing resources to support our staff and students such as new groups and clubs, pride events, educational webinars, and more. More to come! Check out below some Pride Month happenings that SUNY Empire will be participating in this month! 

We’ve had a rough go at it with recent legislation such as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida, and other anti-gay and anti-trans legislation introduced across the nation. Here at SUNY Empire, we hope that despite the difficult political climate, invalidation, harmful situations, and other struggles, that we can grow to affirm and support efforts to protect our community. If you are curious about New York’s legislation to protect our community, please check out this helpful equality map! Stay up to date on legislation like GENDA and the Gender Recognition Act, which aim to protect and affirm our community. We will not stop at “lip service” during Pride month and beyond and are committed to real action. Please reach out to our co-chair, Josh Boardman, at Joshua.Boardman@esc.edu, with thoughts, concerns, and suggestions that our group can support. 

Happy Pride, y’all! Celebrate our existence, work to create a better tomorrow, and be kind! We will not allow hate to have a home at SUNY Empire. 

Em Wasserman-Vaianella 
(They/Them/Theirs) 
SUNY Empire Student