Celebrating Pride Month 2023

Dear CUNY SPS Community:

Today marks the start of Pride Month, which commemorates and celebrates the brave and uncompromising efforts of LGBTQIA+ activists and communities to demand equality, civil rights protections, and the right to live freely.

At CUNY SPS, we take pride in this month, and in the role that our own community has played—and continues to play—in the LGBTQIA+ civil rights movement, and I am very pleased to note here just a few of the recent ways our community has participated in the cause.

On March 30, Jan Oosting, assistant professor of nursing, co-presented on the panel From Margin to Center: Queer & Trans Advocacy at CUNY during the CUNY Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access Conference 2023.

This April, the CUNY SPS Committee on Institutional Equity and Diversity (CIED) hosted the workshop Fostering an LGBTQ+ Inclusive Campus, which sought to enhance one’s knowledge of the LGBTQ+ community while learning the foundations of active allyship through an intersectional lens.

On May 22, the School’s Pride Club hosted an in-person Pride Celebration at the School’s Manhattan campus to kick off Pride Month and honor the accomplishments of our LGBTQIA+ community.

In other recent news, CUNY SPS was also invited to join the CUNY LGBTQIA+ Consortium. (We’ll have more details to share publicly about this exciting partnership shortly.)

Finally, Armando “AJ” Ramos, a student in the the BA in Communication and Media program, was featured in the Bronx Times for requesting that pride flags be installed in Mosholu Parkway’s Bronx Victory Memorial.

I applaud these members of our community for their efforts and am excited to share some other ways we can get involved with this list of Pride Month resources, events, and organizations curated by the CIED.

LGBTQ+ Pride Month

Language and communication are more than just using requested pronouns. Although this is important as well, learn the definitions for some common terms relating to the LGBTQIA+ community and guidance on how and where to use them.

• LGBTQ Heritage Theme Study - A free online collection of LGBTQ+ studies, written by experts, peer reviewed, and published by the National Park Foundation

• It Gets Better Project

CUNY Resources

• CUNY LGBTQ Resources

• CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies - The Graduate Center

LGBTQ Communities

• The Center for Black Equity

• National Black Justice Coalition

• Black Trans Advocacy Coalition

• NativeOUT

• We R Native

• Galaei Facebook

• TransLatin@ Coalition 

• Unity Coalition

• Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement

• NQAPIA (National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance)

• The Visibility Project

• DeQH Desi LGBTQ Hotline for South Asians 

• Muslims for Progressive Values

• Coming Home to Islam and to Self

Mental Health and Wellness

• CUNY SPS Counseling Services

• The Trevor Project

• National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network

• Trans Lifeline - Crisis support for and by the trans community

Parents

• My Kid is Gay

• The Trevor Project

Educators

• The Safe Zone Project

• GLSEN

Additional Resources

• Everyday Feminism - Racism, privilege, homophobia, and disability through the lens of modern feminism

• American Institute of Bisexuality

• Bi-inclusivity

• Transwhat - Transgender community and how to be a better ally

This June, I hope that you will find time to explore these resources, learn more about the LGBTQIA+ fight for freedom, respect, and equality, and join the rest of the CUNY SPS community in showing your support.

All the Best,

Jorge Silva-Puras

Interim Dean, CUNY School of Professional Studies