Twenty years of St. Joe’s LGBTQIA support

The Alliance, a Saint Joseph’s University faculty and staff support group, and the student-run SJU Pride are commemorating October Pride History Month, with a series of activities aimed at generating awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, queer, intersex, asexual and ally (LGBTQIA) issues.

“SJUnity is this month where we can just celebrate who we are within this school,” said Kerry Dowd ’19, co-leader of SJU Pride. “Events highlight what we are trying to bring to the school. St. Joe’s Pride disappeared and over the past years is coming back slowly.”

Dowd is also one of the coordinators for Unity Month, which consists of educational events and activities throughout October, including The Unity Mass, Speak Out and upcoming Safe Zone Training, all focusing on the LGBTQIA community.

According to Jo Alyson Parker, Ph.D., professor of English, Speak Out is an event with an opportunity for personal experiences to be heard in a safe and supporting environment. As a member of The Alliance for 20 years, Parker participated in the first Safe Zone training at St. Joe’s, and said these earlier trainings primarily focused on education and creating a support system for LGBTQIA students.

“What I’ve seen now is students feel real support here,” said Parker. “Twenty years ago LGBTQIA students felt very unsupported.”

According to Elizabeth A. Linehan, R.S.M., Ph. D., professor of philosophy, another long time member of The Alliance, LGBTQIA awareness at St. Joe’s began in the 90s when an anonymous letter was published in The Hawk. The letter detailed the difficulties of being gay at St. Joe’s, and caught the attention of faculty members, who soon formed a support group. According to Parker, it was not until 1992 that The Alliance was formally created.

“It took a long time for there to be a registered LGBTQIA student group,” said Linehan.

Finding an agreeable and appropriate name for such an important but sensitive human right took time. Linehan said the original name Rainbow Week was changed to Unity Week, after the administration claimed the term misrepresented the meaning of “rainbow.” Linehan also remembered not having a budget for the program.

“We had to get other sponsors, and so athletics helped pay for lunch at the first SpeakOut,” said Linehan. “They continue to pay for it every year as well as help bring in speakers.” But, things have changed in the last two decades for LGBTQIA issues in the St. Joe’s community.

“Ideally I would want this campus, its faculty, its staff to make this a welcoming place for people of all gender identification,” said Parker. “We [St. Joe’s] do not always live up to that ideal.”

According to Dowd , SJU Pride aims to have a more central role in the St. Joe’s dynamic on campus. Linehan said the growth of Unity Month this year is largely due to the increasing leadership roles taken on by students. Now conversation about LGBTQIA rights and representation is much more welcoming.

“The fact is that pride itself is a place where we can be ourselves,” said Dowd. “SJU Pride is a presence and we are going to keep being a presence.”