Pride Office at CU Boulder

Pride Office at CU Boulder The Pride Office serves the LGBTQ+ community at the University of Colorado Boulder.

We are part of the Center for Inclusion and Social Change which also serves students of color, first gen students, DACA students and other underserved groups.

🍬 Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Scroll to learn about q***rplatonic relationships & celebrate love in your own way! 🍬...
02/14/2025

🍬 Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Scroll to learn about q***rplatonic relationships & celebrate love in your own way! 🍬

🍭 What is "q***rplatonic"? 🍭
Q***rplatonic refers to a type of relationship that are not just romantic or platonic, but generally somewhere in-between. Often, they are described as long-term partnerships with close
friends. If you’ve ever talked to a close friend about marrying them when you are both 30, or planned to live in retirement together, that is q***rplatonic! As q***r relationships, q***rplatonic can look many different ways!

🧁 Where does the term come from? 🧁
Q***rplatonic was coined in 2010 by authors s.e. cummings and Kaz.

From the As*xual Visibility & Education Network (AVEN): “non-romantic significant-other relationships of ‘partner status.’”

From Angela Chen, in ACE: What As*xuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of S*x: “one of the few explicit titles available to describe the social space between ‘friend’ and ‘romantic partner.’”

And from Julie Sondra Decker, in The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to As*xuality: “a platonic relationship, but it is ‘q***red’ in some way - not friends, not romantic partners, but something else.”

🍰 Why post about it now? 🍰
Valentine’s Day doesn’t always feel good
for LGBTQ+ (and cis/straight) people.
There’s a lot of pressure to have found “the one,” which can make especially aromantic and poly people uncomfortable. Many ACE (as*xual) spectrum people also express discomfort with Valentine’s Day expectations. Q***rplatonic is a way to have fun with the holiday, celebrate whatever relationships are meaningful for you, and enjoy the people you feel close  with, romantically or otherwise.

🎂 How do I celebrate and show appreciation for my q***rplatonic partners? 🎂
You can make (or find) cute grade-school style Valentine’s cards. There’s some great ideas online, but most of the boxed paper ones you can buy at the grocery store have non-romantic phrases. You can also give a partner something nice, like some tea or cookies. Or just share that you value them in your life, whatever fits the relationship you share. There's no rules here!

🕊️ Black History Month Spotlight 🕊️Bayard Rustin: An African-American leader in social movements for civil rights, socia...
02/13/2025

🕊️ Black History Month Spotlight 🕊️

Bayard Rustin: An African-American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights.

🤍 His work:
- Bayard Rustin worked with A. Philip Randolph on the March on Washington Movement, in 1941, to press for an end to racial discrimination in employment.
- He organized Freedom Rides.
- He helped to organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to strengthen Martin Luther King Jr.'s leadership.
- In 1963, he served as principal organizer for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
- He worked alongside Ella Baker, a co-director of the Crusade for Citizenship, in 1954.
- He helped organize a group called "In Friendship" to provide material and legal assistance to people threatened with eviction from their tenant farms and homes.
- Rustin became the head of the AFL–CIO's A. Philip Randolph Institute, which promoted the integration of formerly all-white unions and promoted the unionization of African Americans.
- At the time of his death in 1987, he was on a humanitarian mission in Haiti.

🌈 His orientation:
- Rustin was a gay man and, due to criticism over his s*xuality, he usually acted as an influential adviser behind the scenes to civil-rights leaders.
- One of the first documented realizations Rustin had of his s*xuality was when he mentioned to his grandmother that he preferred to spend time with males rather than females. She responded, "I suppose that's what you need to do".

🏅 His legacy:
- On November 20, 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom. At the White House ceremony, President Obama presented Rustin's award to Walter Naegle, his partner of ten years at the time of Rustin's death.
- According to Daniel Richman, former clerk for United States Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, Marshall's friendship with Rustin, who was open about his homos*xuality, played a significant role in Marshall's dissent from the court's 5–4 decision upholding the constitutionality of state so**my laws in the later overturned 1986 case Bowers v. Hardwick.

💍 A "Boston Marriage" is a long-term, loving relationship between two women. It may be romantic or platonic, but is base...
02/12/2025

💍 A "Boston Marriage" is a long-term, loving relationship between two women. It may be romantic or platonic, but is based on deep love, respect, and usually long-term cohabitation. The term originated in the 19th century with Henry James’ book The Bostonians, said to have been based on his sister Alice and her life partner Katherine Loring.

📖 February 9th was Alice Walker's birthday! Note: We want to recognize the importance of Black q***r women’s work and co...
02/11/2025

📖 February 9th was Alice Walker's birthday!

Note: We want to recognize the importance of Black q***r women’s work and contributions, while holding that historic and current figures, like Alice Walker, also often have dehumanizing viewpoints of certain identities.

✊🏿 Alice Walker is an American author and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, for The Color Purple. As an activist, she participated in the Civil Rights Movement, advocated for women of color through the term "womanism," and has been involved in animal advocacy and pacifism.
- She worked for the Legal Defense Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Jackson, Mississippi.
- Walker's 1975 article "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston", published in Ms. magazine and later retitled "Looking for Zora", helped revive interest in the work of this Afro-American writer and anthropologist.
- She took part in the 1963 March on Washington with hundreds of thousands of people.

Criticisms:
- In 2023, Walker publicly defended J. K. Rowling from criticisms of her views regarding trans people. She has yet to fully apologize for this stance.
- Since 2012, Walker has expressed appreciation for the works of the antisemitic British conspiracy theorist David Icke. In 2013, the Anti-Defamation League called anti-Zionist essays in Walker's book The Cushion in the Road "replete with fervently anti-Jewish ideas" and it also stated that Walker was "unabashedly infected with anti-Semitism". She has continued to support Icke’s work as recently as 2022.

📖 February of 1977 - "And The Band Played On" was published by Randy Shilts.📚 The book chronicled the timeline of the AI...
02/11/2025

📖 February of 1977 - "And The Band Played On" was published by Randy Shilts.

📚 The book chronicled the timeline of the AIDS crisis, including the response of the medical professional community and the US government. It detailed the struggle of the q***r community and the unfair treatment based on widespread fear of AIDS. It also criticized news and media outlets for their handling of the issue - Shilts was an investigative journalist at the time of writing and did not like how his fellow media professionals treated the crisis as a joke.

📒 Want to learn more? Visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
And_the_Band_Played_On

Join us 1/30 4-6 PM in the UMC Connection for Q***r and Trans Grad Student Bowling! Meet other LGBTQ+ grad students, eat...
01/30/2025

Join us 1/30 4-6 PM in the UMC Connection for Q***r and Trans Grad Student Bowling! Meet other LGBTQ+ grad students, eat food and bowl!

💐 2008: The Coquille Indian Tribe legalizes same s*x marriage, one of the spouses must be a member of the tribe.🌸 April ...
11/14/2024

💐 2008: The Coquille Indian Tribe legalizes same s*x marriage, one of the spouses must be a member of the tribe.
🌸 April 29, 2010: The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation law states that two persons may be joined in marriage, regardless of gender.
🪷 Aug. 1, 2011: The Suquamish Tribe of Washington legalizes same-s*x marriage. At least one member of a same-s*x couple has to be an enrolled member of the tribe to be able to marry in the jurisdiction.
—
🌼 May 25, 2022: The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians legalize same s*x marriage, changing family law wording to “two persons” instead of “man and woman.”
🌻 March 16, 2023: The Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi enact a Marriage Code that legalizes same-s*x marriage.
🪻 May 2023: The Choctaw Constitutional Court ruled that Choctaw Nation members have a right to marry, regardless of gender.

Learn more!
https://www.bpr.org/news/2021-09-30/heres-how-same-s*x-marriage-laws-differ-on-tribal-lands
https://www.fedbar.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Indian-Col-pdf-1.pdf
https://www.marriageequality.org/international_laws_north_america
http://www.freedomtomarry.org/states/native-american-territories

⚱𓂀⚒🏺 Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum were two male overseers of the manicurists of the palace of Nyuserre Ini of the Fifth Dy...
11/13/2024

⚱𓂀⚒🏺 Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum were two male overseers of the manicurists of the palace of Nyuserre Ini of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt that were buried together at the Saqqara necropolis. At their tomb, they are depicted holding hands and embracing - a pose usually associated with romantic couples. Both are also referred to with gender-neutral language, and some typically female symbols are associated with Khnumhotep. Also, their names are how they were referred to, rather than how they referred to themselves, and correspond to each other, roughly translating to “joined in life, joined in death”.

📜 Their tomb was re-discovered by Ahmed Moussa on November 12, 1964. This is commonly believed to be the first depiction of a same-s*x relationship in history (that we’ve discovered so far). McCoy, J. (1998, July 20). Evidence of gay relationships exists as early as 2400 B.C. The Dallas Morning News. http://www.egyptology.com/Niankhkhnum_Khnumhotep/dallas.html

Reeder, G. (2000b). Same-s*x desire, conjugal constructs, and the tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep. World Archaeology, 32(2), 193–208. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438240050131180

Salvo, V. (n.d.). Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum aka Overseers of the Manicurists. In O. Keehnen (Ed.), Legacy Project Chicago. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/khnumhotep-and-niankhkhnum-aka-overseers-manicurists

Wilford, J. N. (2005, December 20). A Mystery, Locked in Timeless Embrace. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/20/science/a-mystery-locked-in-timeless-embrace.html

📖 Frances V. Rummell was the author of the first explicitly le***an autobiography in the US where the two women end up t...
11/12/2024

📖 Frances V. Rummell was the author of the first explicitly le***an autobiography in the US where the two women end up together happily with the publication of her novel Diana: A Strange Autobiography in 1936, which she published under a pseudonym. As an educator and non-fiction writer, Rummell was only posthumously revealed as the author.

🏛️In October of 1996, the Colorado Supreme Court overturned the 2nd Amendment to the Colorado Constitution in the Romer ...
10/15/2024

🏛️In October of 1996, the Colorado Supreme Court overturned the 2nd Amendment to the Colorado Constitution in the Romer v. Evans case. The amendment denied LGBTQ+ people the right to claiming protected status as a minority group, which the court decided violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection clause and did not have sufficient justification to continue existing. This was a major win for LGBTQ+ rights in Colorado!

October 10th was Indigenous People’s Day! In honor of the holiday, the Pride Office is spotlighting some awesome indigeq...
10/15/2024

October 10th was Indigenous People’s Day! In honor of the holiday, the Pride Office is spotlighting some awesome indigeq***r and two spirit people. Learn about them here!

🌈What is Two Spirit?
The term Two-Spirit is a translation of the Anishnaabe term, “niizh manidoowag,” from the words niizh ("two") and manidoo ("spirit").
Elder Myra Laramee was the messenger of the term in 1990 at the intertribal Native American/First Nations gay and le***an conference.
The term Two Spirit is more of a descriptive term which alludes to Native people whose identities and cultural roles aren't by western colonial standards considered cisgender heteronormative. These identities and cultural roles vary from tribe to tribe, from nation to nation, and from people to people. It was an attempt to try and unify the many third, fourth, fifth, or other sacred genders and Native terms that exists within many Native cultures.
Many Native individuals will have a dual or intersectional identity of being Two Spirit, Indigiq***r, and LGBTQPAI+.

🌈What is Indigiq***r?
The term Indigiq***r was created by Thirza Cuthand (Plains Cree) in 2004. Unlike Two Spirit, Indigiq***r honors and celebrates one's s*xual and romantic orientation as well as their gender identity and expression as they both relate to one's indigeneity. This term is a pan-Indigenous term that individuals from various Indigenous backgrounds can and will use.
Indigiq***r is it's own unique identity separate from Two Spirit and being LGBTQPAI+. As such, individuals can be Indigiq***r along with being Two Spirit, gay, trans, pan, etc. It should also be noted that not all Two Spirit and Indigenous LGBTQPAI+ individuals will identify as Indigiq***r.

🌈Further Reading
Two Spirit Journal
Two-Spirit People: S*x, Gender & S*xuality in Historic and Contemporary Native America
Two Spirit Elders
Two Spirit: The Story of a Movement Unfolds – Kosmos Journal
Two Spirit Societies | Tribal Information Exchange
RESOURCES | MT TwoSpirit Society
Academic References | Wabanaki Two Spirit Alliance
2S Resources
Inq***ry: Indigenous Identity and the Significance

🗞️ In September of 1967, the first publication of The Advocate magazine was printed. By October of the same year, the pu...
10/14/2024

🗞️ In September of 1967, the first publication of The Advocate magazine was printed. By October of the same year, the publication had found its way out of the small town it was first printed in.
Today, The Advocate is one of the most well-known q***r rights publications in the US.

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