Pride Month activities continue throughout the month

LGBTQIA+ Pride Month got off to a strong start at Pitt with an evening with figure skating star Adam Rippon on June 2, sponsored by the Rainbow Alliance, and activities ranging from teaching workshops to book clubs to picnics will continue throughout June.

Pitt Pride Picnic, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. June 27: Pitt's LGBTQIA Alumni Council is sponsoring the networking event at the Sycamore Grove in Highland Park. Learn more about Pitt Pride Picnic.

LGBTQIA+ Creative Gallery: The virtual gallery, sponsored by the Center for Creativity and Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, features works of art celebrating Pride. Any faculty, staff, student, alumni or Pittsburgh community member can submit works by June 18, 2021, which will be shared on the C4C social media or you can share your work by using the hashtag #PrideatPitt21 on Instagram.

LGBTQIA+ Inclusion in Course Content and Interactions, 1:30-3 p.m. June 30: This workshop from the University Center for Teaching and Learning invites participants to practice proactive ways to address and mitigate resistance to LGBTQIA+ topics in the classroom. Successful integration of LGBTQIA+ topics into your classroom requires intentional course content design and learning experiences to cultivate an environment that invites exploration of these topics. Participants are encouraged to review the recordings of Trans Inclusivity in the Classroom or Supporting Transgender and Nonbinary Students before attending this session. Participants also are asked to bring a syllabus to revise at the workshop. Register through the University calendar. Contact workshops@teaching.pitt.edu for any questions.

Virtual Diversity Book Club: Discussion of “Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States” by Samantha Allen, 6 p.m. June 30: The book club is sponsored by the Department of Medicine Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion another robust Virtual Diversity Book Club. Samantha Allen’s book is a travelogue that the New York Times Book Review called “a powerful book of memoir and reportage” and that the Los Angeles Times dubbed “a book necessary for anyone in or allied with the queer community.” “Real Queer America” (Little, Brown; 2019), won the Judy Turner Prize for Community Service from the Decatur Book Festival and was a Lambda Literary Award finalist. Register through the University calendar. Contact Anastasia White, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program coordinator, at whiteaj2@upmc.edu, if you have any questions and/or concerns.

New LGBTQIA + Inclusion Resources

The University Center for Teaching and Learning and other groups on campus also have some new resources to explore LGBTQIA+ issues.

LGBTQIA+ Inclusive Strategies and Resources Guide: A comprehensive guide helps instructors identify specific teaching goals and give short, manageable lists of strategies and resources that align with your teaching goals.

PRIDE syllabus: Inspired by the Black Lives Matter syllabus, the document will help instructors identify resources for teaching LGBTQIA+ students and LGBTQIA+ content and issues of content, design, delivery, and external circumstances that may affect LGBTQIA+ students’ to optimize students’ learning experiences.

Queer Praxis: An article in the University Times by a consultant in the Teaching Center explored aske Instructors to disrupt norms.

Beyond Pronouns: Supporting Transgender Members of the Campus Community: This spring, Pitt’s Minoritized Orientation and Gender Identities Graduate and Professional Alliance (MOGI) convened a panel of transgender members of the University community to share their own experiences and offer thoughts on what Pitt does well — and what it could do better.