Pride Month takes place in June and it is a time for celebration among the LGBTQ+ community as they go to parades, rallies, spend time researching different things that are happening in the community, or just spending time with family and friends.

     One freshman, Mia “Mika” Owens, has their plans already planned out by their family and they cannot necessarily celebrate due to their parent’s schedule. They show their support by making content or supporting members of the LGBTQ+ community that they know. Mika does think that it is important that people are exposed, educated, and celebrated on the LGBTQ+ community, with their reasoning being, as they stated, “It needs to be normalized.”

     A second freshman, Carice Hoppes, for previous years when Pride Month arrived showed her support by being an ally, buying pride flags, or LGBTQ+ friendly stuff (pins, stickers, clothing, etc). Carice is planning to do the same things this year for Pride Month. Another way that she shows her support is by not really caring about what pronouns other people choose to use for themselves. Carice does believe that people should be exposed, educated, and celebrated because she states, “…misunderstandings can happen and can turn out not so well in the end. It also should be shown; it cannot affect people personally that others like the same gender or want to change their identity.”

     A third freshman, Meadow “Jayden” Henry, for the last few years had been going to Pride festivals more often than they used to. For this year, Jayden is hoping to go to another festival again, but if they cannot attend, they will just be content and try to get Pride friendly things when they can. They show their support for the LGBTQ+ community by wearing flags or being at events with LGBTQ+ people. Jayden thinks it is important that people should be exposed, educated, and celebrated because, as they put it, “…it’s kind of like being taught history and everyone should know about it, so we can have a better future.”