University of New England

UNE celebrates Pride Week April 10-14th

The University of New England's Office of Multicultural and GLBTQ Services, along with several other organizations, is celebrating Pride Week April 10-14, 2006 on both the University Campus and the Westbrook College Campus.

What is Pride Week?  Students, faculty, staff, and community members celebrate the identity of thier friends, classmates, colleagues, and family members who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, or questioning through a week of events and activities. They also celebrate the allies that engage and support those that face oppression in our culture. 

Through knowledge and openness, Pride Week is a collaborative effort to create and maintain a continuously improving educational environment that celebrates diversity and understanding of all whether - straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered.

In addition to the UNE Office of Multicultural and GLBTQ Services, sponsors include the Alliance for Sexual Diversity; the UNE Department of Psychology; the Department of Social Work, College of Health Professions; the UNE Office of Campus Life/Activities, Westbrook College Campus; the Office of Student Involvement, University Campus; the Office of Housing and Residence Life, University Campus and Westbrook College Campus; and the Sampson Center for Diversity, University of Southern Maine.

Schedule of Events

Monday, April 10, 2006

9 p.m., Comedian:  2, The Ranting Gryphon
The Hang, University Campus

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

12 noon, Ozzie & Harriet, Same Sex Marriage and the Culture Wars: Lesbian and Gay Family Life in Maine 1960- Present
Presented by Dr. Howard M. Solomon
Cafeteria Function Room 2, University Campus
For Maine’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) citizens, the coming out process has often meant struggling against the beliefs and expectations of their families of origin. Over the years, LGBT Mainers have transformed the dynamics of family life while grappling with the ties that bind them – for good or for ill - to tradition and convention. So too have LGBT organizations in Maine been entangled with their political opponents in four decades of public debate about “family values” and “gay rights.”
Two complementary, and sometimes antagonistic, themes underlie the history of LGBT families in Maine.  How have LGBT Mainers experienced “family” personally and politically?  How have other Mainers understood - or misunderstood - those experiences?  
 
The history of LGBT families in Maine since the 1960s parallels, and illuminates, the broader history of American society during this same period. The varieties of family experiences within Maine’s LGBT communities - long-term domestic partnerships, religiously-sanctified marriages, single parents,  men and women living alone and finding family among friends - help us understand the evolving role of the family in America at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

6 p.m., Campus Civility Project
Presented by Greg Shambarger
Multipurpose Rooms, Campus Center, University Campus
Created by the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence, this highly interactive program offers a strategy for confronting the culture of intolerance which can exist on a college campus.  Administrators can change policies but only students can change attitudes and ultimately, the culture of a campus.  All students interested in helping to make their campus climate inclusive of everyone are encouraged to participate in this workshop.

9 p.m., Movie: Brokeback Mountain
Marcil 323, University Campus
Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams
Focus Features; Directed by Ang Lee
Rated R; 134 minutes; 2005
This epic love story is set against the sweeping backdrop of the American West in the 1960s. Two young cowboys, Ennis and Jack, meet at a Wyoming ranch and form a passionate and totally unexpected relationship. Not able to deal with their feelings, they go their separate ways and marry but their attraction brings them back together years later.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

12 noon,  Family Wellness & Diversity: Research on Gay Adoptive Families and Transgendered Youth
CHP Lecture Hall, Westbrook College Campus

Presenter: Mark Gianino, Ph.D., MSW (Clinical Assistant Professor, Boston University School of Social Work)
Topic: Adaptation and Transformation: The Transition to Adoptive Parenthood for Gay Male Couples

Presenter: Franklin Brooks, Ph.D., LCSW
Topic: Transgender Behavior in Boys: The Social Work Response
This study examined social workers’ understanding of and practice with school-age boys with transgender behavior.

12 noon, Marriage, Civil Union, & Domestic Partner: What’s up with that?
Presented by Dr. Linda Morrison
Cafeteria Function Room 1, University Campus
A presentation by Dr. Linda Morrison, Department of Psychology with honored guests, Jeanne Rossi and Fidelis Taylor.  Jeanne and Fidelis are both in their 70’s and have been together as a couple for more than 30 years.  Come hear their perspective on the gay marriage debate.

8 p.m., Movie: RENT
WCC: Wing Lounge, Alexander Hall
and
University Campus: 205 Alfond Hall
Rosario Dawson, Taye Diggs,
Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Jesse L. Martin
Columbia Pictures;
Directed by Chris Columbus
Rated PG-13; 2005
The revolutionary Broadway musical comes to the big screen. A ragtag group of bohemians are struggling with AIDS, poverty, drugs, illness and just trying to pay the rent in the 525,600 minutes that make up a year. As the title song says, they are “measuring their lives in love.”

Thursday, April 13, 2006

12 noon, Safe Zone Training
Ross Conference Room, Stella Maris Hall, University Campus
This program is designed to enhance the participants understanding of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender identity develo p.m.ent.  Participants also gain skills as an ally.

Friday, April 14, 2006

12 noon, Safe Zone Training
Wing Lounge, Alexander Hall, WCC
This program is designed to enhance the participants understanding of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender identity development.  Participants also gain skills as an ally.

For more information contact Multicultural and GLBTQ Services, Travis Erickson at 207-221-4267 or terickson@une.edu.