Bad weather cancels Durham’s pride parade, but QSA work continues.
When Durham’s annual Pride parade was canceled September 23 due to tropical storm Ophelia, QSA club members were unanimously disappointed.
QSA (Queer Straight Alliance) is a student-led club at Riverside.
Junior Quinn Pruett, QSA’s social media manager, was planning on attending Pride that Saturday.
“I feel disappointed,” Pruett said. “I feel like it (events being canceled) happens a lot since September is hurricane season.”
She also wishes Pride to occur in June rather than September, since June is Nationally recognized as Pride Month.
Durham has Pride in September because Duke Students are out for the summer and unable to attend Pride in June.
Junior Lela Hazelrigg, president of QSA wishes that Durham’s pride parade occurred in June as well.
“Partially because it’s likely to be canceled because of tropical storms,” Hazelrigg says. Hazelrigg also wishes that it occurred in June so it would be with the rest of the nation.
Members of QSA planned on going together to the parade.
“Our plan was we were going to walk with the DPS group in the parade,” Pruett says.
Some members also planned on handing out homemade flowers they created at Thursday’s meeting on September 21. The theme of Pride this year was “Giving Them Their Flowers”. According to the LGBTQ Center of Durham, this represents “honor and gratitude for the courage and leadership of our trans communities.”
Though the biggest Queer event of the year was canceled, organizations like QSA still mean a lot to the student body.
“QSA means to me.It’s just a community where we are able to freely express ourselves and be ourselves unapologetically,” says Senior Destiny Health.
“I did plan on going to Pride,” she said. “I was a little bit disappointed but pride is always.”
Graphic by Sadie Irby
