"The purpose of PRIDE week is to celebrate the rich LGBT history and culture here at Dartmouth," Brown, who pioneered PRIDE week at Dartmouth last year, said. "It also seeks to eradicate homophobia and educate the campus about LGBT issues."
The week's largest events will be held Wednesday, Raymond Rodriguez '09, a PRIDE week organizer said. The first, TransForm, is a student fashion show that will experiment with gender and fashion.
"TransForm will be a show with students expressing their identity through clothing," Rodriguez said.
Later that night, Dartmouth's annual Drag Ball will take place in Collis Common Ground.
PRIDE will also sponsor free HIV testing on Wednesday.
This year marks the College's second annual PRIDE week, and the organizers have teamed up with a greater number of campus groups to coordinate the week's events, according to Brown. Events include a reading by author R. Zamora Linmark's from his book, "Rolling the R's," which features homosexual characters, and honors Asian Pacific American Heritage month. PRIDE will also join the Office of Black Student Advising for an event that will examine race and sexuality at Cutter-Shabazz Hall on Thursday. In addition, Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity plans to host a dance party Saturday night in honor of PRIDE week.
Students, faculty and alumni are encouraged to join Greek organizations in their support of the LGBT community by wearing PRIDE T-shirts on Friday. The shirts will be handed out at PRIDE events this week, Rodriguez said. The Athletic Department has also lended its support to PRIDE week, Brown said, and coaches have encouraged student athletes to wear PRIDE T-shirts on Friday. That evening the Hanover Inn will host a gala dinner.
"[Solidarity Day] is going to be a great event to connect the young and the old and for alums to come back and see hundreds and hundreds of people in PRIDE shirts and for them to be able to go down frat row, which has historically been a place of homophobia, and see the PRIDE flags," Brown said.
Another addition to this year's PRIDE week is the inclusion of local religious organizations, according to Pam Misener, advisor to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. The Tucker Foundation Multi-faith intern Kurt Nelson worked with multiple religious congregations in the Hanover area to incorporate messages about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals into their services this week, Misener said.
"It was amazing, there were six or seven different options for people to participate in different congregations where there was attention paid to PRIDE," Misener said.
Rodriguez hopes that PRIDE week will help the student body to gain a better understanding of homosexuality and of the diverse sexual orientations of students on campus, he said.
"I hope that PRIDE week leads to people being more aware of the LGBT community at Dartmouth and the fact that there actually exists gay people on campus." he said. "Hopefully Dartmouth will just be a more accepting place for students' differences."
Though PRIDE week is sponsored by more than 40 campus organizations, it is most closely affiliated with Gender Sexuality XYZ, formerly the Gay Straight Alliance, Rodriguez said.
Other event organizers include Rigel Cable '10, Nanette Cedeno '09, William McMahan '08, Dinah Warren '10 and Cody Lavender '10. Misener served as the group's faculty advisor.
