On Thursday, Oct. 10, Cal State LA’s Gender and Sexuality Resource Center (GSRC) held a celebration at the U-SU plaza for National Coming Out Day to empower, advocate, and bring together the school’s LGBTQ+ community. The event showcased organizations that aimed to inform the community of the various resources available to them on and off campus.
Multiple clubs occupied space in the plaza to show their pride and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, while the community came out in vibrant colors to show their appreciation. Resource organizations ranged in a variety of different topics from athletics to sobriety, and to support for safer sex practices involving HIV and STD awareness. The organization Sober@CSULA offered pamphlets for programs off campus to help with sobriety while also directing students to their discreet AA meetings in King Hall on Tuesdays. Other groups offered the chance to look into more recreational activities.
Another organization offering their time was Grow Proud, a division of AltaMed, focused on HIV and STD prevention, Prep and Pep services, as well as workshops centered around sexual health, gender affirmation, and healthy relationships for youth who encounter domestic abuse. Wilmer Sanchez, a representative of Grow Proud, spoke about the event and praised other organizations surrounding him.
“The event here is actually pretty awesome,” Sanchez said. “We have different community organizations here all pitching in, to ensure the community is healthy, and we’re all doing our part.”
Although the Reach LA booth also delved into health and wellness, its focus revolved around recreation and building community for black and Latin American individuals. Reach LA’s booth was covered with tiny leaflets for events they were hosting, such as fem queen movie night, beginners hip hop classes, and runway boutique.
Rainbow Beach Ultimate, an LGBTQ+ group started in 2021, dedicated to helping youth feel inclusivity in sports, also had a booth. Luis Ortiz, the representative of the booth, discussed the inception of the group as well as its value.
“It started when my own awareness was growing around anti-trans legislation, especially when it concerns sports, you know among other things,” Ortiz said. “As someone who’s been playing ultimate frisbee for over 10 years since 2010, I had the opportunity and the motivation to create a more inclusive community to combat those things and a lot of the hate that was coming out of that.”
The importance of the GSRC celebrating National Coming Out Day cannot be overstated, given the large population of LGBT adults in the United States residing in California. According to the Williams Institute, California ranks highest as the state with the most LGBTQ+ adults with an estimated number of around 1.5 million. Adults ages 18 to 24 have the highest percentage of adults identifying as LGBT, at 15.2 percent.
The growing community, its visibility and wellness were the utmost ideals on which the event was centered. Mario Pizarro, Cal State LA’s GSRC coordinator, spoke to the UT about his role in the community as well as the work that still needs to be done.
“I think it’s my role as someone who is out, as someone who is an adult, has gone through very different important paths in my life as a queer person, and understand that there’s a lot of work to be done. This is a place that I can do that,” said Pizarro. “Marsha P. Johnson, as we shared, was one of our queer ancestors who passed away. She did say, ‘No pride for some of us until liberation for all of us.’”
