Entering the Spirit of 76 Suite in Assembly Hall an hour and half before the IU women’s basketball game against Purdue, attendees of Pride Night were greeted by friends and strangers alike with smiles and hugs.
The event, put on by the GLBT Alumni Association, was created to gather the women’s community and allies to support the women’s basketball team while coming together as a community. At this event, the alumni association had refreshments laid out on counters, Coach Teri Moren gave a small speech, and there was a raffle for candy-stripe pants and warm-up shirt.
Cindy Stone, vice president of the GLBT Alumni Association, greeted attendees at the door of the suite.
“We wanted a home game date to come together and celebrate as a gay community and our allies to cheer on the women’s basketball program,” Stone said.
Rebecca Keith was the founding secretary for the GLBT Alumni Association, and though she was only on the board for a couple years, she has been a longtime volunteer for the GLBTAA.
“I’m so proud to have been a part of its beginnings,” she said.
The GLBT Alumni Association works to provide networking and support among its members and provide scholarships for current IU LGBT students, according to its website.
In attendance at the event were alumni from the Bloomington Feminist Chorus, which gave a small performance of the song “How Could Anyone” written by Libby Roderick and the IU alma mater and fight song. These alumni were joined by other allies who wanted to come together for a small performance.
Jane Rogan was a part of the group that gave the small performance. She is the director of engaged learning in the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. Though not an alumni member of the chorus group, Rogan said she was very much in favor of participating in the women’s chorus after receiving an email about it.
Not long after the small chorus performance, Rogan was jumping up and down. She had just won the raffle for a pair of candy-striped pants.
“It’s great to see a pride event at a sporting event,” Rogan said.
Though very excited to win the pair of pants, Rogan said on the eve of the presidential inauguration, she felt horrible.
Rogan has been on a self-imposed media blackout since the election and has only read the obituaries and doing the sudoku puzzles in her newspaper subscriptions. For someone who said she loves politics, the recent months have been difficult for her.
“It is very difficult to feel like what’s happening does not represent anything I care about,” she said.
However, being around a community of people like the alumni association has helped Rogan in light of the inauguration.
“It’s reaffirming to me that there are people like me out there in the world and that we matter,” she said.
Sydney Ziegler is a sophomore undergraduate student at IU and is the student director on the GLBT Alumni Association. She helped give student input to the committee of alumni that put the Pride Night event together.
Ziegler shared a similar sentiment as Rogan regarding the election and said being around alumni who had seen presidents come and go helps her realize that things will be okay.
“I know that ultimately it’s going to be okay, and looking at these people, I know that if they can get through and more on with this happening, then I can, too,” Ziegler said.
