St. Thomas celebrated Pride Week for the fourth year from Oct. 7-11.

Layton Hernandez, a graduate assistant for the Diversity Activities board, planned the week’s events.

“I’m kind of the first staff member to have LGBTQ work written into my job description at St. Thomas, so I think it’s very telling of how St. Thomas wants to change,” Hernandez said.

Counselor GiGi Giordano from counseling and psychology services hosted Monday’s event, Culture Stew: How Do You Express Queer Pride on Campus?, which discussed the experiences of queer people and allies on campus.

As part of the Movies That Matter series, members of the St. Thomas community watched the documentary, Coming Out – A 50-year History on Tuesday. Jake Reilly, a St. Thomas residence hall director, led a discussion afterward

Wednesday’s event was Tea Time – LGBTQIA Unscrambling the Letters. Hernandez led the group discussion about understanding transgender, nonconforming and two-spirit identities.

Students made Pride flags Thursday evening in the Createspace in Anderson Student Center.

To end the week, a pride dance held in the basement of the Anderson Student Center Friday.

Katie Martin, co-president of St. Thomas’ Queer Straight Alliance, was impressed that so many faculty and staff came out to support LBGTQ+ students during the week.

“I’ve never seen that much school-sanctioned rainbow,” Martin said.

Acknowledgement is a big deal to both Hernandez and Martin. Being acknowledged by the university is what excited them most about Pride Week.

“This year has definitely been the best year…St. Thomas’ main Instagram put something on their story, a picture of us, which we never get that kind of acknowledgement,” Martin said.

Each event brought in around 15 people, and most attendees are “regulars.”

“I think the most we typically have is 15 people tops, which also goes hand in hand with some people are not out and some people don’t feel comfortable coming to these events because it feels like they are outing themselves,” Hernandez said.

Students can support their LBGTQ+ peers by attending events, joining organizations like QSA and including pronouns in email signatures.

Rae Beaner can be reached at rnbeaner696@stkate.edu.