UC Merced groups set for LGBT-related events

Groups from UC Merced are organizing events to raise awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other sometimes marginalized people.

Since 1994, October has been recognized as LGBT History Month.

In honor of National Coming Out Day, university club Lambda Alliance will host its annual candlelight vigil from 6 to 8 p.m. on Sunday in the Wallace-Dutra Amphitheater on the campus, 5200 N. Lake Road. Lambda is a UC Merced student organization focused on LGBT culture and heritage, according to a news release.

The vigil is an open-mike-style event that allows anyone to publicly share his or her coming-out story and invites others to read written stories. Friends and supporters of the LGBT community are welcome to share their stories, the release stated.

On Monday, UC Merced’s Center for the Humanities and Merritt Writing Program plans a staged reading of “The Laramie Project,” the story of the well-publicized hate killing of Matthew Shepard.

The free performance of the play, which was written by Moisés Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project, is at 8 p.m. Monday at Vault Works, 1666 N St.

In October 1998, Shepard, a gay college student in Laramie, Wyo., was beaten and left for dead by two men. He died six days later.

Following his death, several members of the Tectonic Theater Project traveled to Laramie and recorded more than 200 hours of interviews with those who lived there, according to a news release.

The performance was organized in Merced by Dawn Trook, the project producer and a lecturer for the university.

For more on the stage show, email Trook at dtrook@ucmerced.edu.

This story was originally published October 9, 2015 at 5:01 PM with the headline "UC Merced groups set for LGBT-related events."