UC Merced students celebrate LGBT pride

UC Merced students are celebrating LGBT pride this week, and the school’s Lambda Alliance is sending the message of inclusion and hoping to fight labels and stereotypes.

Students kicked off a week of events on Monday with a pride parade down Scholars Lane followed by carnival-themed booths offering information and games. Parade participants wore tie-dyed capes in rainbow colors, waved flags and banners that read “Keep calm, it gets better” and chanted “LGBT, we demand equality.” The group of about 30 parade participants drew cheers and applause from passersby.

The theme of this week’s pride events is “love in colors.”

“Love in colors is based on the pride flag,” said Andre Frise, vice president of Lambda Alliance. “Every color has a meaning in the LGBT community. We want people to love in color, love in all those meanings (of the flag) and love in (inclusion.)”

The six colors of the pride flag represent, in general, red (for life), orange (for healing), yellow (for sunlight), green (for nature), blue (for art), indigo (for harmony) and violet (for the human spirit), represented by pink – also the club color for Lambda Alliance.

Though many people associate LGBT mostly with those who identify as gay, lesbian and bisexual, Frise said the alliance wants to recognize those who identify as queer, asexual or other orientations.

Cassidy Trindad and Amelie Knight, both 17, attended the events to show their support. Knight’s mother is part of the Merced College Gay Straight Alliance, another organization that participated.

“Almost everyone in my family is gay or bisexual,” Knight said. “It shouldn’t matter if you’re gay or straight, as long as you love each other.”

“It’s not looked at as equal, and it should be,” Trindad added. “It’s the same thing.”

Juan Gomez, also a Lambda Alliance member, said he hopes the Merced community outside of the university accepts the LGBT community: “We’re trying to spread the message of acceptance.

“We want to let UC Merced students know there is a community here for them and we are inclusive.”

This story was originally published March 28, 2016 at 6:43 PM with the headline "UC Merced students celebrate LGBT pride."