Gaypril

CELEBRATE GAYPRIL!
Pride Month at the Claremont Colleges

Every year The Claremont Colleges community celebrates a month of LGBTQQIAA Pride in April. Pride month is a once-a-year opportunity for LGBT individuals to enjoy visibility and support from a wide community, while celebrating our allies and promoting awareness about issues surrounding the diverse intersections of queer identity. The Gaypril calendar represents the combined efforts of students, staff, and faculty from organizations across The Claremont Colleges. These individuals come from many different organizations: campus-specific queer groups, 7C-wide resource centers such as The QRC or The AARC, and other community resources like KSPC, 5Cs Out Loud, and The Pomona College Museum of Art, to name a few. In April we come together to celebrate pride and advocate for queer and allied college communities (and beyond) with events that range from social, to supportive, to educational, to just plain incredible!

The QRC would like to thank everyone that came out this year to make the 2012 Gaypril a fantastic success. With over 35 events we had a record number of queer events on the 7 C's!  Take a look below for some highlights of this year’s events and come back in March of next year to see announcements for the 2012-2013 Gaypril Celebration!

Highlights: April 2012

In the 2011-2012 school year, The QRC hosted classic (annual) events like Queer Prom and Lavender Graduation, and of course - our Gaypril Kickoff event: Painting Walker Wall! We also added some new ones like our Gaypril Art Show, The Queer Faith Series, and the first annual Graduate Queer & Allied Social and Bar-B-Q. We were also be busy going to the many events put on by Queer groups across the campuses. Below are descriptions of just a few of the many events held this year.

(G)A(Y)pril 1st - paint Walker Wall Rainbow!!!!!

Sunday, April 1st from 2:00 – 4:00 pm always at Walker Beach, Pomona College

There was delicious food (tacos), a super fun bounce house, live music, and of course a ton of rainbow paint!

Queercore Social, with Professor Chris Guzaitis

Wednesday April 4th, 7:00 - 8:30 pm at KSPC, PO

Long before Lisa Duggan introduced the concept of "homonormativity" to Queer Theory, G.B. Jones and Bruce La Bruce in their zine J.D.s published the manifesto "Don't Be Gay, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Fuck Punk up the Ass," which launched the Queercore scene. "Don't Be Gay" railed against the homophobia of punk as well as the mainstream aspirations of gays and lesbians, effectively identifying "homonormativity" before the concept found its way into Queer Theory nearly 10 years later.

Through an examination of early Queercore culture in the late 1980s and into the 1990s, KSPC and Professor Chris Guzaitis led a discussion in how the DIY and Anarcho-Punk ethics of Queercore influenced the development of Queer Theory and the importance of remembering this history in the growing institutionalization of Queer Theory in academia.
Attendees listened to and watched Queercore music and videos, chatted, reminiced and snacked.

"Mosquita y Mari" Film Screening and Q&A with filmmaker, Aurora Guerrero, cast & crew

Friday April 6th, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm in Vita Nova 100, SCR

In a fast-paced Immigrant community where dreams are often lost to economic survival, two young Chicanas contemplate life when they stir sexual desires in each other.

Mosquita y Mari is a coming of age story that focuses on a tender love between two young Chicanas that struggles to find its place in their lives and in today's world. Yolanda and Mari are growing up in Huntington Park, Los Angeles and have only known loyalty to one thing: family. Lost in their private world of unspoken affection, lingering gazes, and heart-felt confessions of uncertain futures, Yolanda's grades begin to slip while Mari's focus drifts away from her duties at a new job. Mounting pressures at home collide with their new-found desires thus driving Yolanda and Mari's relationship to the edge, forcing them to choose between their obligations to others and staying true to each other. Family hosted a screening and discussion of this film.

Graduate Queer & Allied Social & BBQ

Thursday, April 12th 5:00 - 7:00 PM on the Humanities Lawn, 141 E. 12th Street (adjacent to the GSC House), CGU

Over 40 graduate students from Keck Graduate Institute, Claremont School of Theology, and Claremotn Graduate University joined us for BBQ and delicious drinks as we celebrated a month of PRIDE at The Claremont Colleges! The event was sponsored by the Graduate Student Council, The Minority Mentor Program and the QRC.

A special thanks to Humanities for lending us their space!

Fresh Meat Tour: Sean Dorsey & Shawna Virago

Thursday, April 12th at 7:30 PM at Benson Auditorium, PTZ

Join us for the Fresh Meat Tour of award-winning transgender choreographer Sean Dorsey and  folk-punk artist Shawna Virago! The Fresh Meat Tour is an explosion of transgender politics, performance, and dance.
Sponsored by: QRC, Motley, Pomona Diversity Committee, Family, SCORE, Scripps Live Arts, SAS

For more information see the Fresh Meat Productions website.

QPOC "EqualiTea" Talk

Tuesday, April 17th from 6:30 – 9:30 pm at The SOCA Lounge, PO

As a nexus between the QRC's Tuesday Talk series, SOCA's Tea Talks series, and Queer People of Color, this event is one that is special and exciting.

This affirming discussion space is designed for students of all sexual orientations and gender identities who identify as people of color and allies to them. This talk's discussion will begin with questions on the relationship between mainstream gay and lesbian Equality culture and queer people of color. Of course, that will only be the beginning of the talk, so come on and join the conversation!

Queer Faith Series

Thursday, April 19th from 4:15 – 6:45 pm at I-Place, CMC

The final event of the QRC's Queer Faith Series, the QRC hosted a screening of the film followed by discussion with Director Jeff Roy and Maya Jafer.
 
Mohammed to Maya (aka Rites of Passage) is a feature-length documentary that examines issues of transsexualism, religion, and traditionalism against the backdrop of a single person’s dramatic journey. M2M follows one year in the life of Maya Jafer (formerly Mohammed Jafer), a 42 year-old South Asian Muslim from Chennai, India, as she makes her gender transformation from male to female, capturing her in times of vulnerability and resolution.
The Queer Faith Series was a four-part series designed to explore intersections of faith and queer identity. Other talks and discussions in the series were:

• Thursday, March 29th at the QRC: "Queer Christian Theology" Talk and Discussion
  with Reverend Dr. Neil Thomas, Senior Pastor of the LA Metropolitan Community Church
• Thursday April 5th at the QRC: "Sexuality and Gender in Hindu Scriptures"
  with Raja Bhattar, Director of the UCLA LGBT Center
• Wednesday, April 18th at the QRC: “The Bible and Homophobic Disgust” *Also part of our Queer Faculty Symposium
  with Erin Runions, Associate Professor Department of Religious Studies at Pomona college

Lavender Graduation & Queer Prom

Friday, April 27th from 3:30 – 5:30 pm held at The Athenaeum, CMC

Friday, April 27th from 9:00 – 12:00 pm at Seal Court, SC

First, we celebrate our graduationg students with a graduation ceremony complete with rainbow  stoles! At this year's Lavender Graduation we honored 55 graduates. Family, friends and community filled The Athenaeum at CMC for this lovely celebration. The QRC thanks all who participated and invites you to read more about this amazing event on our Lavender Graduation page.

Then, we party! What better way to celebrate our graduating students than with a Queer Prom?! This year a night of dancing and deserts was held at Seal Court. Sudetns were invited to wear their favorite  outfit and come bid farewell to their favorite graduates, meet some new queer and allied folks, and enjoy a night with friends!