DENTON, Texas — Here in Texas the state's top ten largest universities are all working to be more inclusive and welcoming to the LGBTQ+ community — from The LGBTQ+ Pride Center at Texas A&M University, to the LGBTQ conference held earlier this year by University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Whether it’s to make more enrolled students feel included, or to capture the attention of prospective high school seniors all are holding events and offering services catered to queer and questioning students.
The University of North Texas in Denton is ranked number six in enrollment numbers but aims to be number one when it comes to offering services to students with the University’s Pride Alliance office. The office opened in the fall semester of 2013 on National Coming Out Day and is a unit of UNT’s Division of Institutional Equity & Diversity. The program was created to provide a campus office to specialize in resources on gender and sexuality and a safe space for marginalized orientations, gender identities, intersex, and questioning students.
For the last eight years Kathleen Hobson has served as the program’s sole director. Hobson who uses they/them pronouns said they’re dedicated to cultivating community for LGBTQ+ students. Hobson was hired soon after the non-discrimination policy at UNT was changed to afford protection to those who identify as gay, lesbian or transgender.
Originally from Ohio, Hobson received their Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Ohio University and their Master of Arts in Higher Education Administration from the University of Akron. When they moved to Denton in 2014 to serve as the Pride Alliance’s director, they were both nervous and excited for the opportunity to get UNT recognized as a more welcoming university.
Located in office 372 of UNT’s Student Union, Hobson and their student assistant Circe Marez offer services including menstrual resources (pads and tampons), safer sex resources (external/internal/finger condoms and lubrication) and the OUTfits Clothing Closet, just to name a few. Students can come in and take whatever they’d like whether it’s a gender pronoun pin to display on campus, or some queer knowledge.
“One of the things that we’ve realized is that students who are coming to college maybe 18 or 19 years old are less familiar with some of the important folks that have really made it possible for us to be where we are today,” said Hobson as they referenced the art pieces displayed around the office depicting queer and trans leaders of color including Sylvia Rivera and Bayard Rustin.
Hobson wants to make sure the Pride Alliance office is not only a place where students can be educated but also feel safe and comfortable asking questions about their gender identities.
They’re encouraged seeing the average coming out age getting younger around both queer and trans identities, but believes what they offer can be life-changing for students coming to terms with their identity, whatever that may be.
“One thing I see, especially being in Texas is there are many students who are not out before they come to college or maybe they’re out but only to themself,” said Hobson. Marez who uses they/them pronouns is a Junior Journalism major. They operate the Pride Alliance’s Outfits Clothing Closet.
This space filled with an assortment of apparel including bras, binders, pants, shorts and skirts provides students with gender affirming clothing for free. Marez said all the clothing in the closet and funds supporting its mission are all donated. They feel honored to be able to offer this service that they themself have benefitted from.
“Every time that I get to see a student come out and they have their binder, and you can see the elation on their face, you can see how having this gender affirming clothing just makes them feel so much euphoria. That’s what I do the job for,” said Marez.
While Hobson and Marez are working to make their office a beacon of resources for students, off campus, UNT Alum Sara McNiel wishes Denton as a city had more queer spaces. McNiel who uses she/her pronouns wrote an article published in the university’s newspaper The North Texas Daily titled “Denton is in Need of More LGBTQ Spaces.” In the article she mentions how Denton has no established queer spaces, no coffee shops, restaurant, stores, or bars.
She came out as a lesbian while studying at UNT and felt supported on campus but feels Denton's community as a whole needs to take the university’s lead by being more inclusive.
“It’s nice that UNT offers those things to people but it’s kind of frustrating that the only place in Denton that has that because what if someone doesn’t go to UNT or doesn’t know that they offer that there,” said McNiel.
She shared a story of a time the pride alliance helped in her coming out journey.
“For National Coming Out Day they had a door set up in the middle of campus where it was supposed to represent a closet door and people could come-up and write things on it, like their names, or their stories, and seeing that they did that was really helpful for me, because that was right after I came out too, so that was sort of a nice emotional process for me to see that,” said McNiel.
It’s experiences like McNiel’s that Hobson believes are so important when first coming out, and having the opportunity to help students build community is something their very proud of.
“It’s something that has been so central to my experience as a queer and trans person and I just hope to be able to give that back to the students as much as I possibly can,” said Hobson.
They hope the Pride Alliance will continue to help UNT’s reputation of being a welcoming place for those who chose to shine through events like their annual Lavender Graduation. The event held April 19 follows a tradition first started at the University of Michigan in 1995. The tradition is conducted at universities to honor LGBT students and acknowledge their accomplishments and contributions.
“Some of the students are just kind of blown away by the ability to gather in a space with other folks who are like them and so it’s really crucial I think to their development but also that kind of shapes that their experience is going to be like during the time they're in college,” said Hobson.
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