We are committed to providing culturally relevant and efficient programs and services designed to foster successful transition, retention, persistence, achievement and graduation of scholars.
Future Events
We are continually planning events to help us come together. Check back often to see what's coming up!
Signature Events
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Qhort
Qhort is a way for students new to WSU to create their own cohort. Qhort is a way to meet new friends, connect with LGBTQ+ faculty and staff and learn more about LGBTQ+ campus and community resources
Q*Hort Events are typically held at the beginning of each semester, as part of welcome events.
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Queer History Month
LGBTQ+ History Month was founded in 1994 in the U.S. by Rodney Wilson, an openly gay high school teacher in Missouri. Wilson gathered community and national leaders, including educators, in the quest to dedicate a month to celebrating and teaching LGBTQ+ history. In 1995, the National Education Association endorsed LGBTQ+ History Month at its general assembly. In 2009, President Barack Obama declared LGBTQ+ History Month a national history month.
The month of October was selected because it is within the academic calendar year and created space to acknowledge existing observances during the month, including the anniversaries of the first and second LGBTQ+ marches on Washington (1979 and 1987, respectively) and National Coming Out Day (established Oct. 11, 1987, during the second LGBTQ+ march on Washington). LGBTQ+ History Month now also includes International Lesbian Day (Oct. 8), International Pronouns Day (Oct. 19), Spirit Day (Oct. 20), Asexual Awareness Week (Oct. 17 – 21) and Intersex Awareness Day (Oct. 26).
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inQueery Symposium
This annual event brings in guest speakers to create an intellectual space for intersectional and interdisciplinary conversations that center issues around gender, race, sexuality, and identity.
This event is hosted in partnership with the WSU Women*s Center and the Program in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
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Lavender Graduation
Lavender Graduation is a time to celebrate and recognize our LGBTQ+ graduates. We welcome students graduating from all levels at WSU: undergraduate, graduate, and professional students.
Lavender Graduation participants will receive a special stole as a token of our appreciation and to celebrate all that our students do for our community. Students, faculty, staff, friends, and family are all invited!
You can learn more about the history and tradition of Lavender Graduation from the Human Rights Campaign. -
Queer Archives
Queer Archive Exhibition
Higher Ground
An Exhibition of Art, Ephemera, and Form
Opening Reception
Friday, April 26th | 6:00-8:00 PM
MASC Gallery (Ground Floor of Terrell Library)Higher Ground features artwork and archival material from across the Palouse that speaks to the history of, nuance, and manifestations of queer experience in the area. These collected works bring together ephemera, historical photographs, writings, and pieces of art to create a broad view of how queer life has been documented, experienced, and memorialized in the greater Palouse region. Higher Ground moves beyond a simplistic notion of history and representation and speaks to a more serpentine canon of life, history, and art. It embraces the incompletes, the remembrances, the keepsakes, the half-truths, gossips, murmurs, and fleeting moments.
This exhibition is in collaboration with the Washington State University LGBTQ+ Center & the Libraries Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections.
The Higher Ground Exhibition will be installed through Queer History Month, October of 2024.
For questions and inquiries, email: june.t.sanders@wsu.edu & josie.rodriguez@wsu.edu