FAU Celebrates LGBT History Month with Gay Pride Parade

Rene Perez was marching down a sidewalk on Florida Atlantic University's Boca campus.

He was chanting: "Stomp on homophobia!"

The 19-year-old Spanish major was surrounded by members of Lambda United - the university's gay/straight alliance - when the club kicked off LGBT History Month with a parade.

Some waved rainbow flags, others held signs and yelled, "We're queer with no fear."

It was 11:30 a.m. when the group started marching from the student union to the center of the Boca campus, where they set up tables with free food, music, condom key chains, dental dams, lubricant, equality stickers, and, of course, rubber ducks and beads.

"This is our history. Let's celebrate it," Perez said.

Hundreds of students flowed in and out of the "mini pridefest," as Dani Guevara, Lambda's president and a psychology major at FAU described it on the group's facebook page.

Emily Calfo - the university's LGBTQA Resource Center specialist - helped organize this year's pridefest.

"I got all the vendors here," Calfo said. "It's been amazing."

This was the second annual history month kickoff, but last year's lacked the music, food and dancing.

"We had a kickoff, but it was different," Calfo said. "We're trying to have a tradition of starting a pridefest every year."

Last year, students and administrators spoke about the university's anti-discrimination policy, which didn't protect gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders back then. Now transgenders are the only group still unprotected.

"There's a lot of work we need to do," Guevara said.

And Bri Sgro, English major and the founder of FAU's newest women's club - Women Organizing Women - agrees.

"It makes me feel a little ashamed," Sgro, 20, said. "We always boast about how diverse we are, but we've still got a long way to go here at FAU."

Sgro is referring to the university's ranking as the 27th most diverse campus in the nation, according to this year's U.S. News and World Report.

Meanwhile in the center of the plaza where the kickoff was held, Rene Perez danced for over an hour before Dani Guevara joined in for a few minutes.

"Homophobia, we step on it," Perez said. "That's how we do it here."

"We're going to keep fighting until we get it," Guevara said.