Sacramento State’s PRIDE Week is back with exciting events that have never been put on before and new co-sponsors. Sac State continues to show its support to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community by increasing the amount of co-sponsoring organizations from nine last year to 13 this year.

Sac State is helping to bridge the gap between the LGBT community and those who generally wouldn’t be involved by bringing a sense of awareness of the queer community on campus through PRIDE Week events.

PRIDE Week events will be hosted by the PRIDE Center and sponsored by, the Women’s Resource Center, Multicultural Center, College Democrats, Queer-Straight Alliance, Academic Advising, Associated Students, Inc., the Career Center, KSSU 1530 AM, Peer Health Educators, UNIQUE, Student Activities, Housing and Res. Life. The Campus Progressive Alliance, who is not on the flyer, had made a late entry to co-sponsoring PRIDE Week.

Nicole Scanlan, one of the PRIDE Center coordinators, thinks it’s amazing to have all of these organizations on campus supporting PRIDE Week. “It really is a testament to just how diverse Sacramento State is and how supportive campus entities are of the LGBT community,” she said.

Alexa Harris, who is also a PRIDE Center coordinator, said PRIDE Week events are open to everyone.

“It’s for everybody. All of the events are either queer-themed or have a queer person involved somehow in the event, but it’s for everybody to attend,” Harris said. “Everybody can find something valuable in every performance.”

Many people can learn lessons from this week’s PRIDE events whether it’s bringing light to social issues, breaking down stereotypes, or confronting gender.

On Monday, an event called the Gay Bash was held in the PRIDE Center. The event, which had never been tried at Sac State before, allowed the co-sponsoring organizations to mix and mingle. It also gave LGBT students the opportunity to get to know their core-friendly resources on campus.

Junior anthropology major Jason Krantz, who is part of the LGBT community, thought the Gay Bash was a good way to start off the week. Krantz thinks it is very important to have LGBT students meet supportive organizations on campus.

“It gives common ground,” Krantz said. “I haven’t participated in any school organizations before today, but I decided to come in. I felt like I might have a better opportunity to relate to people here.”

Rebecca Adler, a grad student majoring in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), said the Gay Bash was a fun opening event for PRIDE Week.

“I think it’s important to have PRIDE Week on campus. I’m straight, but I’m still here because I want to show my support,” Adler said.

On Tuesday, the Eighth Annual Gender Bender, held in the University Union’s Hinde Auditorium, allowed students to gather and confront gender stereotypes and the gender dichotomy. A lot of the entertainment for the Gender Bender event included music, dance performances, poetry reading, skits and monologues.

Scanlan said the Gender Bender is not intended to be a cross-dressing event, although some people do come in drag. Instead, the event lets students break down walls and show themselves as people with talents.

“It’s about people confronting social constructions of gender,” Scanlan said. “It allows people to explore different sides of themselves, so discovering different parts of their identity.”

Diane Francis, senior English major and one of the QSA facilitators said the Gender Bender is her favorite event.

“It’s a lot of fun to kind of see people push their limits, try something new, and sometimes embarrass themselves. It’s a little more involved as opposed to just watching other people do something. It kind of gets everybody to try something out themselves, which is nice,” Francis said.

Today, comedian Bridget McManus will perform at 6 p.m. in the Hinde Auditorium. McManus, who has a popular video blog on AfterEllen.com, was on the cover of Curve Magazine, a magazine catering to queer women, in a 2008 Comedy issue.

Harris said the PRIDE Center booked McManus last July.

“She’s just a great person and we think she fits in with the message of not only PRIDE Week, but the Pride Center very well and that’s the empowerment of people regardless of their gender – their sexual orientation,” Harris said.

Mikhail Chernyavsky, senior journalism major, will be a special guest opening for the Bridget McManus event (He is also The State Hornet’s online managing editor).

Chernyavsky thinks that having comedy in a PRIDE Week event is great.

“It’s a great way to convey information and you can educate people, but yet still keep their interest by entertaining them,” Chernyavsky said.

On Thursday, a Good Vibrations Sex Workshop will be held at 6 p.m. in the Hinde Auditorium for ages 18 and over. The full title of the event is, “Physiology of pleasure and sex toys and gender 101,” which will discuss how to have safe, consensual sex with queer partners. The gender 101 will cover the spectrum of gender. Both coordinators said ID’s checked at the door will be strictly enforced.

The last event for PRIDE Week, known as the King of Drags, will be at 6 p.m. on Friday at the Hinde Auditorium. This event will feature one of the most successful drag troupes on the West Coast, known as the Sacramento Kings of Drag Troupe, a group of biological women who take on the gender persona of men.

Scanlan said the Sacramento King of Drags bring to light issues surrounding the queer community as well as occasional relevant political issues through dance, music, and lip-syncing.

“They’re also breaking stereotypes about gender because sometimes they play feminine men and sometimes they play masculine men, so they’re breaking down stereotypes about men in general as women who are dressing as men,” Scanlan said. “You can learn a lot of lessons from that.

Jade Baranski, a member of the troupe, said the Kings of Drag hope to spread awareness about the queer community through their performance.

“We’re really focused on spreading the love in the queer community,” Baranski said. “We’re one community bringing the community together.”

For those attending PRIDE Week events, free parking will be offered from Tuesday until Friday on the sixth floor of Parking Structure III.

Christina Li can be reached at [email protected]