For the second year in a row, Etown’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) and Office of Diversity, Equity and Belonging (DEB) hosted a glamorous night of drag queens from Central PA, featuring hosts from the previous year, Betty Whitecastle and Lizzie Beaumont.
The event occurred on April 19 at 9 p.m. in the KAV, and was open to any Etown student, no matter their identity or expression, with features from other queens as well.
We sat down with Etown GSA Vice President Mackenzie Pollachek to discuss the event, as well as talk about worries and precautions that may come to fruition.
Pollachek works as an event coordinator with GSA and worked alongside the Office of Student Activities (OSA) in order to get the ball rolling for this, as well as other Etown Does PRIDE events, such as the Day of Silence event and the Social Justice Fair.
“Working with the OSA in order to coordinate this event was much easier this year, since it’s our second year doing the Campus Queens event, we kinda have a better understanding of what we need to do,” Pollachek said in an interview. She mentioned that the College also helps to bring in the information and coordination for the event, saying that it is much easier to pitch now than starting from the ground-up in comparison to last year.
The entire month of April is dedicated to pride activities at Etown, with April 3 being the kickoff day, where GSA members gave speeches as well as wrote encouraging messages on the Commons patio. However, despite the “true” pride month not occurring until June, there was still vandalism and hate spread across the chalk works done by students from an outside party.
Even with this minor setback, the GSA and allies removed the hate and chalked all over the patio once more, with statements such as “can not, will not be erased,” “queer and here” and the classic mantra of “love is love.” We asked Pollachek if this happening caused any worry for that of the Campus Queens or for any future events.
“Not really,” Pollachek replied after a moment of consideration, “because the people that vandalized the patio were not students of Etown, and since Campus Queens takes place in the KAV, a room inside the school, we’re not too worried about anything happening, but we are planning on security for the event to ease people’s minds.”
Campus Queens is not the only event left for the month; with 5 other events occurring before and after the queens visit, GSA will still be loud and proud throughout. All the events conveniently take place after classes and dinnertime, with a variety of types as well.
From poetry that happened on April17 to the movie night on the 18, Campus Queens was the climax of the events, which happened on the 19. Etown Does PRIDE rounds off the month with a trivia and karaoke night on the 24 and 25 of April, and a closing lecture on queer identities that go beyond the LGBT acronym on the 26th.
After Campus Queens, Etown Does PRIDE events are on hold for TGIS, concerts and Mx. Etown events. The events kick back up again on Monday, April 24, with queer trivia in Hoover 212 at 7:30 p.m., Queeraoke on Tuesday, April 25, at 8 p.m. in the Jay Lounge within the BSC and Beyond LGBT happening in Hoover 210 at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 26.
More about Etown’s GSA and DEB can be found online via the Campus and Community tab in https://news.etown.edu/
