The LGBTQ+ Taskforce is co-hosting two virtual events for National Coming Out Week.
The first event is the Virtual Resource Fair from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on Oct. 13. The second is the Virtual Mixer and Pride-Themed Kahoot from 4-5 p.m. on Oct. 14.
The Virtual Resource Fair includes 13 organizations for students. There will be four on-campus and nine off-campus organizations. A few of the organizations that will participate are the Pride Center San Antonio, Fiesta Youth and PFLAG San Antonio. There will also be an LGBTQ+ owned restaurant and hair salon.
“There’s a lot of vast differences between one person’s coming out experience and the other, and so by us all sharing and embracing in it, we’re building community and building sometimes our chosen family for those that are accepting of who we are and whom we love,” said Robert Salcido Jr., executive director of Pride Center San Antonio.
The campus organizations will include Disability Support Services, Student Counseling and Wellness Services and the Mays Center, whose staff will discuss the importance of voting and registration.
The event is all online and available through givepulse, which can be accessed through JagSync. Students can register for a certain time block to attend an organization’s session of their choice. When students visit different organizations throughout the event, they can obtain a “secret password” from each booth and win a prize at the end of the event.
“We always want to make sure that students, especially LGBT students, have all the resources that they need,” said Eliasz McCullen, programs and partnership coordinator at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. “Especially during this time during COVID, it’s more important for our students to know that they’re not alone, that there are all these LGBT folks out there with them.”
The other co-hosts of Coming Out Week are The Coalition, Mays Center and Student Involvement.
The Virtual Mixer will include a Pride-Themed Kahoot game. The winners of the Kahoot game will be given “pride-themed swag” and rainbow cupcakes, McCullen said.
Throughout the years, the LGBTQ+ Taskforce gives out rainbow cupcakes to celebrate National Coming Out Week and this year will be no exception. To stay within COVID-19 safety guidelines, the organization will be getting the cupcakes individually prewrapped from the bakery. The cupcakes will be handed out to students at the Mays Center, in the stem building at suite 111, during the day.
“It is so important because we want to make sure people, that all of our students feel safe and welcomed in being themselves all the time and we want to create spaces that welcome that,” McCullen said.
The celebratory week, was supposed to include a Virtual Drag Show. McCullen said many students were planning on attending and wanted to volunteer to help, but it was canceled due to a lack of performers.
For more information, contact McCullen at emccullen@tamusa.edu. To RSVP to the events, visit https://tamusa.campuslabs.com/engage/event/6506970 and https://tamusa.campuslabs.com/engage/event/6414525.
