The Pride Center aims to provide a space where LGBTQ+ students and community members feel free to grow, explore and be their authentic selves. 

Every year The Pride Center hosts its QTPOC retreat, with this year’s theme being “inner child healing.” Aside from the retreat, the center offers peer lead support groups with programs including the Queer Femme Healing Circle, Queer Crafternoon and Higher Pride – which discusses religion and spirituality within the LGBTQ+ community.

The variety of support groups that the pride center gives students and community members a space to talk about the struggles and pain that come from identifying as LGBTQ+. 

The Pride Center also offers light-hearted activities. For example, Queer Crafternoon, which is hosted bi-weekly, involves members doing crafts, socializing and watching LGBTQ+ shows. 

With the theme being inner child healing, QTPOC Retreat focuses on thinking about one’s inner child and what one did or didn’t have in their childhood. 

The QTPOC Retreat featured activities, crafts and space to reflect — most of which are led by Pride Center Educators. 

One of these student educators is senior Valentine Illasco.

“We were talking at the retreat about how a lot of us weren’t allowed to be kids,” Illasco said. “It all goes back to (the) community for me and for a lot of us here.” 

One of the crafts done at the retreat was a zine house. A zine is a small, self-published magazine used to spread awareness on a topic or share art, and is very popular within the LGBTQ+ community. 

Pride Center educator and sophomore, Sophie Persichilli, said the zine house craft was created to have participants reflect further on what they did or did not have in their childhood and see it for what it was.

The Pride Center employs student educators to help make their space more welcoming and accessible to students. These student educators are the ones who plan and run the support groups.

“We have support groups that happen throughout the year,” Assistant Director Kay Wong, said.  “Our support groups are peer-led, so it’s run by our student staff, so there’s no faculty there. There’s not like professional stuff there, so that power dynamic isn’t there.”

The bi-weekly support group Queer Femme Healing Circle is hosted by Pride Center educators Michah Reedman and Olivia Newell. Like other programs, the main intent of the support group is to provide a welcoming environment for students. This support group in particular aims to provide a safe space for femme LGBTQ+ people where they can be their true selves.

Angelle Duong, a freshman who attended the QTPOC Retreat, was thrilled to participate in Pride Center events.

“There have been so many amazing events conveying inclusivity and beyond open-mindedness. Before heading to SDSU, I didn’t know who I could look up to or where to find people who were queer and people of color,” Duong said enthuisastically. “Once I found The Pride Center, I finally found a wonderful community and a second home.”

Aside from providing services, events and support groups, the Pride Center has a Community Care Corner, which provides school supplies, non-perishable foods and other essentials for individuals who can’t afford them. The center also has the Community Care Closet, which is a place where people can take clothes that help them align with their gender expression. 

There is also the Queer Library, which has LGBTQ+ books for students to use for school projects or just casual reading. The Pride Center also offers a kitchen, snacks and hygiene products.

“I came from a predominantly white and conservative high school, so it’s cool to have an environment where I feel like I belong and don’t have to worry about trying to be someone else,” Mia Warren, a freshman, said.

Wong’s current plans for The Pride Center are to expand things like the retreat, so it can be bigger and allow more people to attend. They also hope to bring back Gender Affirming Days, which helps students go through the process of changing their names legally with the school. 

The Pride Center also would help students fill out paperwork and get fees paid to ensure their names are changed. Pride center employees would also go with the students to the courthouse and help them prepare for the questions that would be asked to them.

An event coming up in November is Trans Day of Remembrance. The Pride Center holds a vigil every year for Trans Day of Remembrance, and Wong hopes to make it a bigger event this year.

For more information or support, regarding the Pride Center and its upcoming events at San Diego State University, visit https://sacd.sdsu.edu/pride.