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The first year this course ran, more than 100 people represented Temple at the march. Then, when the time came to march, even more people requested to be part of it. He wound up with 65 in attendance, and the class had to be moved to the largest lecture hall in Annenberg Hall. When Gratson first got approval for the course, which focuses on elements of LGBTQ+ history, activism and advocacy, he didn’t expect the minimum 13 people would sign up. “The feeling is, ‘Wow, Temple is learning its history, the students are proud of it and now we’re all marching.’” “There is such a sense of euphoria when the students come together at New York City’s Pride event, and also a sense of arrival,” he said. What began three years ago as student-led interest in participating in the NYC Pride March turned into Temple’s first Pride class in 2019, complete with an internship worth up to three credit hours. Temple’s participation at NYC’s Pride event was the culmination of weeks of study, research, meetings and more within Gratson’s Pride class. Gratson watched smiles of joy and wonder slip across the faces of his students, both current and former. When the marchers neared the singing onlookers, a feeling like electricity ran through them. Gratson, the director of communication studies, a professor of instruction in communication and social influence, and the director of undergraduate studies at Klein College of Media and Communication, coordinated with his students to wear t-shirts that each depicted the name of a transgender woman of color who was killed in this past year-a reminder of those for whom they were marching.Īs they made their way down multicolored streets, a familiar sound reached their ears-“T for Temple U,” the Temple fight song. Scott Gratson led alumni and students of Temple University’s Pride class down the same path he traveled in 2019 alongside the Buddhists Creating a Better World for LGBTQ+ People and the five hosts of Queer Eye. The Empire State Building stood out among dozens of other skyscrapers, lit up in a colorful array of rainbows in celebration of New York City’s annual Pride event.
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And we have so much work to do in the battle to stop HIV/AIDS from continuing to kill our community 40 years after the epidemic.Banners displaying the words “ The fight continues” swung through the air as hundreds of physically distanced marchers made their way down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. We have so much work to do to defend trans kids around the country who are facing an onslaught of legislation squarely focused on telling them they do not matter.
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The Equality Act is tied up with no signs of passing even after President Joe Biden said it would be his priority in the first 100 days. And, of course, the police brutalized many people who marched, leaving them bloody and pepper-sprayed in the streets where just the year before we saw police showing solidarity for the 2019 WorldPride parade. In June 2020, as the pandemic forced New York City to a lockdown, local organizers took to the streets for the Queer Liberation March, a procession that retraced the original Pride March in 1970 against police brutality. Our history in America, even beyond Stonewall, is defined by how our bodies have been brutalized by police officers and the state at large.