Members of the Duke community take a photo break during the parade.
This year’s Pride Parade took place on Saturday, Sept. 27, and despite the rain, Duke students, with the Durham community, took the opportunity to celebrate.
“The Pride Parade itself is a powerful act of resistance and visibility, not just for our campus but for the larger Durham community,” said Angel Collie, director of Duke’s Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity (CSGD). “For our students, seeing themselves reflected so vibrantly and unapologetically in a public space can be life changing.”
Duke has a long history of supporting LGBTQ+ colleagues as part of fostering an environment of inclusive excellence for everyone, Antwan Lofton, the university’s vice-president of human relations, said in a campus-wide statement celebrating Pride Month in June. October is LGBTQ+ History Month.
One way Duke fosters this environment on a daily basis is through the CSGD. Located on the first floor of the Bryan Center on West Campus, the CSGD is a central space for Duke’s LGBTQ+ students and allies to commune, said Ki Hickman, assistant director of programming and student engagement at the center.
“Even in the midst of all that’s gone on, we still find ways to gather and talk about joy, and talk about love,” they said. “It’s nourishing, and I think that’s why people keep coming back. Because they are being fed in more ways than one.”
Here are scenes from celebrating over the weekend.
