Riverside’s Queer Straight Alliance (QSA) creates a welcoming environment for LGBTQ students.
The club serves as a community space where queer students are free to be themselves. Their biggest project is planning for the annual Durham Pride Parade.
It was set for September 23, but was canceled due to tropical storm Ophelia. QSA club members were unanimously disappointed.
Junior Quinn Pruett, QSA’s social media manager, was planning on attending Pride that Saturday.
“I feel disappointed,” Pruett said. “I feel like it (Pride being canceled) happens a lot since September is hurricane season.”
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 said.
Some members also planned on handing out homemade flowers they created at Thursday’s meeting on September 21st. 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,” said senior Destiny Health.
“I was a little bit disappointed but pride is always.”
