Fitchburg State University will celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month in October with programs designed to enlighten and entertain. The month’s events are free and open to the public.
The programming begins with an exhibit on banned LGTBQ+ and Latina/o/x books running Sept. 29 through Oct. 5 in the Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio Library in Hammond Hall. Every year since 1982, libraries across the country celebrate the freedom to read with Banned Books Week. Today book challenges in libraries, particularly school and public libraries, are at an all-time high according to data collected by the American Library Association. This program celebrates the importance of challenging censorship.
There will be a Pride Flag raising and opening ceremony at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1 outside Thompson Hall. Numerous identity flags will be displayed after the Fitchburg State Choir performs. There will be a brief speaking program and refreshments will be provided by Joey’s Cannolis.
The kickoff will conclude at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1 with an anti-hate speech talk in the Hammond Hall Main Lounge by author and attorney C. L. Lindsay, author of The College Student’s Guide to the Law: Get a Grade Changed, Keep Your Stuff Private, Throw a Police-Free Party, and More, as well as Sex, Speech, Selfies, and Getting Smashed: Critical Legal Issues for College Students. Lindsay’s address is sponsored by the Student Government Association and the Newman Center Trust Fund.
Additional events include drag performances, social gatherings and a Second Chance Prom at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26 in the main lounge at Hammond Hall.
The full schedule of events is posted online at fitchburgstate.edu/lgbtq-history-month.