Applause erupted in Centennial Common Oct. 11 as a pride flag was hoisted up the flagpole at the center of the Common.
The flag raising is an annual event put on by Northeastern’s LGBTQA Resource Center marking National Coming Out Day and the start of OUTober, a month dedicated to celebrating LGBTQA+ pride and history.
“Together in this complexity, we sustain relationships with care, support and intimacy with one another, innovating webs of relationships, unfounded by normativities of gender, sexuality, romantic affinity and the gendered scripts that so often impose limitations on our shared social worlds,” said Carter Strong, assistant director of the Northeastern LGBTQA Resource Center, to the crowd of around 25 students and faculty. “Let us celebrate the possibilities that our histories and our futures generate and the relationships of care that will make those futures possible.”
The raising of the pride flag is one of several events hosted in October by the center. Other events include the Loud and Proud Open Mic, International Pronouns Day and Queer Prom.
National Coming Out Day can be an especially difficult time for some community members, Strong said.
“Being out is in a binary and being out is not desirable or possible for every queer and trans person,” Strong said to the crowd. “The paradigm of coming out of the closet tacitly reproduces cis heteronormativity, the assumption that all people are cisgender and straight until they say otherwise.”
Strong’s opening speech was followed by two guest speakers: Dirk Rodricks, senior director of cultural and spiritual life, and Kevin Vetiac, Northeastern’s Episcopal Chaplain and spiritual advisor, who spoke about the current issues facing the community today regarding faith.
“We are yet again living in a time in our nation, where religion is being used as an excuse for bigotry, violence, homophobia and transphobia, particularly targeting trans and genderqueer youth,” Vetiac said. “I ought to say, as a queer person of faith, that I reject any form of religion that seeks to strip anyone from their God-given autonomy over their bodies, over their desires, over their orientation and over their gender.”
“And as an episcopal priest,” Vetiac continued, “I specifically reject any form of Christianity that promotes white nationalism, patriarchy, misogyny and homophobia, because we know that all of these are linked together.”
Rodricks took time in his speech to reflect on his personal experience as a leader on campus and a member of the LGBTQA+ community, speaking about how the flag raising ceremony is significant to his own journey of acceptance and personal growth.
“Today, as I watch the flag go up, I will encounter my younger self from that earliest stint at Northeastern, almost 20 years ago,” he said. “I will tell him that he loves not only who he has become, but he continues to love the person that he was, the journey he has been on and the dreams and the joy that lies ahead.”
Davina Chang, a second-year political science and international affairs combined major, watched the ceremony and reflected on its importance in today’s political climate.
“Events like these are so important because they carve out queer space that would otherwise not be included,” Chang said. “Showing that there is a safe and welcoming community at Northeastern goes so far, especially right now as more red states propose anti-LGBTQ legislation and as LGBTQ rights become a hot-button issue in the upcoming 2024 election.”
Vetiac ended with parting words that called for progress and unity, continuing to emphasize that even those who don’t feel accepted or welcomed always have a space on campus.
“Whoever you are, wherever you are on your journey, whomever you love, however you identify and whatever pronouns you use, know that you are seen, you are celebrated and you are beloved,” Vetiac said.
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