"Celebrating Pride is a way for an institution to enact its values, and our values are based around inclusion and belonging," said Dr. Matthew Paolucci Callahan, Sonoma State University Professor of Psychology.
On May 30, Sonoma State raised a rainbow-colored flag in honor of Pride Month. In addition to the flag-raising ceremony, the university participated in and sponsored the 2024 Sonoma County Pride Parade.
Callahan said the events were not just performative gestures. Both gatherings, and those who participated, were "an affirmation of the work that so many people on the campus are already doing.
"If you look at who shows up, it's every level of the university — its staff, faculty, students, administrators, leadership. The Provost was front and center marching at Pride," he said.
In 2022, Callahan and Dr. Karen Schneider, interim executive director of Extended Ed, were watching the Pride Parade and wished that SSU had been part of it.
“So, last year we made it happen,” he said.
Mo Phillips, Director of Student Involvement at SSU, has worked with the university since 1997.
"I don't think we can say enough about what that flag means for students coming to the university who haven't come out yet," Phillips said. "But it's also nice to have a moment where we can bring everyone together and be a part of a community for a little bit."
"The rainbow flag is a symbol of a social identity and an antidote against vitriol, signaling to gay people who are out, or not out, that our institution values them," Callahan said.
Shifting times for gay rights
Kim Purdy, Executive Assistant to the Provost, attended SSU for her undergraduate studies and recalls the 1990s as a contentious time for gay rights.
The '90s were the decade that produced the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in the U.S. military, The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and Amendment 2 in Colorado prohibiting the state from enacting antidiscrimination protections for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals.
"I witnessed the ‘90s as a hostile time for queer people. But when I got to SSU in the early 2000s, it was clear it was not like that here," she said.
Working with Kris Montgomery and Laurel Holmstrom-Keyes, former SSU professors of women and gender studies, Phillips was involved in much of the early education in the safe zone program, a campus-wide initiative promoting an inclusive and safe environment for LGBTQ+ students, staff, faculty, and guests.
Callahan said that since the ‘90s, there has been an upwelling of support for LBGTQ+ people. But what has been thought to be a "done deal" in terms of general acceptance for the gay community has turned into backlash over the past few years, he said.
Although most bills did not pass, nearly 500 pieces of legislation to restrict the rights of LGBTQ people were introduced in 2023, half of them targeting transgender youth.
Callahan – a social psychologist whose research includes transgender prejudice – said decades of research show how macro-level efforts to undermine gay rights impact the mental health of queer people.
"You see these large-scale attacks associated with increased anxiety and depression, particularly for our young people and our students, are at an all-time high," he said. "These kinds of events, like Pride and our flag ceremony, can abate some of those symptoms because it shows that they are valued and cared about."
The first flag ceremony on campus was in 2021. The following year, the flag was vandalized and stolen. Phillips said SSU Chief of Police Nader Oweis supported getting a new Pride flag made of stronger material, as well as a metal rope for the flagpole.
"We flew the new flag, and we flew it for longer. We did it because we wanted [the thieves] to know that they can take the flag down, but they can't take us down," Purdy said.
- Krista Sherer, Strategic Communications Writer