May 28, 2025

Happy Pride Month! How to get involved, get support or give support

In recognition of the Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, which – among other factors – prompted the Gay Liberation Movement, June is Pride Month.

Pride month celebrates the contributions of the LGBTQ+ community, honors those whose lives were lost to hate crimes and HIV/AIDS, and serves as a catalyst for equity advocacy.

This June, Seattle Pride celebrates the 51^st anniversary of Pride festivities in Seattle, established in 1974 as a rallying cry for gay rights and queer visibility after the Stonewall uprising of 1969.

At the University of Washington, organized support and celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community goes back even further.

In 1967, UW Professor Nicholas Heer co-founded the Dorian Society, the first organization in Seattle to support gay rights and foster queer community. In 1969, Dorian House, operated by a UW counselor and staffed by UW students,  began providing counseling services to gay and lesbian folks (eventually becoming the Seattle Counseling Center).

And in the early 1970s, UW students organized the Gay Student Association and the more radical Gay Liberation Front.

More than half a century on, Seattle Pride Month is one of the city’s largest and most beloved annual events. Seattle Pride continues to connect the storied past and vibrant present.  Besides presenting the Pride Parade and Seattle Pride in the Park, Seattle Pride provides year-round community engagement activities designed to celebrate and uplift the voices in their community.

Here is a guide to some of the organizations representing, events celebrating and resources serving LGBTQIA+ communities at the UW and beyond.

Events

Pride Month Flag Raising

• June 1/ UW Medicine
• June 2/ 10:00 a.m./UW Campus

UW Medicine will be raising rainbow flags at all the medical centers on June 1. Flag raising locations at UW Medicine include Harborview Medical Center at Harborview Park, UW Medical Center Northwest Campus outside the Emergency Room by the campus bus stop, UW Medical Center at the flag pole at front entrance of hospital and Valley Medical Center at 3rd floor, main hospital building, by the fish tank next to the Infusion Center.

Please join us for the UW Campus raising of the Rainbow Pride Flag, at 10:00am on Monday, June 2. The flag will be raised at the flagpole on Memorial Way, near Kane Hall.

Pride Month kicked off early with Seattle Pride in the Park and Run & Walk with Pride. But there’s much more upcoming:

Lavender Graduation
June 10/ 5:30-7 p.m. / wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ – Intellectual House

Celebrate the achievements and contributions of UW’s graduating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning students.

Pride Month Lunch & Learn
June 17 / noon-1 p.m. / Zoom

Engage with the Ingersoll Gender Center, the TYP and others about their efforts to foster open, safe and inclusive spaces for all identities and orientations. Hosted by the UW Combined Fund Drive.

Trans Pride Seattle
June 27 / 5-10 p.m. / Volunteer Park

Stop by this annual event organized by Gender Justice League in collaboration with hundreds of local organizers, volunteers, and groups who support the Seattle-area TwoSpirit, Trans & Gender Diverse (2STGD) community.

PrideFest Capitol Hill
June 28 / noon-8 p.m. / Capitol Hill

Come for a massive block party featuring music, dancing, beer gardens, local businesses and family and youth programming. This celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community will span six blocks of Broadway and Cal Anderson Park.

Walk with UW in the Pride Parade
June 29 / 11:30 a.m. (meeting time) / downtown Seattle

Join the Q Center and Q Faculty and Staff Association or UW Medicine contingents to march in the annual Pride Parade, starting at 4^th & Pike in downtown Seattle and ending at 2^nd Ave. & Denny Way.

PrideFest Seattle Center
June 29 / noon-8 p.m. / Seattle Center

After the parade, take in day 2 of Seattle’s biggest celebration with four stages of food and drink, national and local acts, arts and crafts and family programming. All events are free and open to the public.

Tacoma Pride Festival
July 12 / noon-6 p.m. / Tacoma

The street festival will be an all ages event that will include a mainstage with queer and BIPOC entertainment, a beer garden, Makers Market and so much more!

Find many more Pride Month community events at the Seattle Pride website.

Community

Q Faculty, Staff & Allies Association – fostering a campus climate where all queer faculty, staff and allies are valued and respected, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Promotes education and dialogue, cultural diversity, leadership and advancement, recruiting and retention, social networking, exchange of ideas and provision of LGBTQIA+ resources.

UW Medicine LGBTQ+ – collection of resources, events and community building for queer members of the UW Medicine community.

Resources

LGBTQ+ Resources at the UW – supports a culture of inclusion and has provided protections from discrimination and harassment for individuals based on their sexual orientation long before such rights were recognized by federal or state law.

UW Aging with Pride study – landmark federally funded research project designed to better understand the aging, health, and well-being of sexual- and gender-diverse midlife and older adults. Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen, Ph.D., professor and director of Healthy Generations Hartford Center of Excellence at the University of Washington, initiated and has been leading the study since 2009.

 

UW Libraries – a wealth of LGBTQIA+ literature and resources, including the LGBTQ History Research Guide features several new additions including the Archives of Sexuality & Gender, LGBT Magazine Archive, Queer Pasts and much more. Queer Joy: is a curated list of graphic novels, novels, poetry, manga, movies and TV, including trigger warnings along with keywords and descriptions.

Special Collections houses oral histories from the Northwest Lesbian and Gay History Project and the LGBTQIA+ Archival Pride Resources.

The UW Tacoma Library has an excellent list of community resources, including this Gender and Sexuality subject guide.

Rainbow Book Month showcases LGBTQIA+ book awards and bibliographies from the American Library Association.

Support

Consider making a one-time contribution or setting up payroll deduction to UW Combined Fund Drive member organizations working to positively impact the lives and well-being of LGBTQ+ people:

Camp Ten Trees – providing residential summer camp sessions for LGBTQIA+ and allied youth and for children of LGBTQIA+ families — giving them a place to build skills, strengthen resiliency and make lifelong friends (charity code: 1468090).

Entre Hermanos – improving the health and well-being of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Latine communities in a safe and culturally appropriate environment (charity code: 0524060).

GLSEN: Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network – supporting the 8 of 10 LGBTQ+ students who are bullied or harassed by making schools safer for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity (charity code: 1479258).

Human Rights Campaign – envisioning a world where every member of the LGBTQIA+ family has the freedom to live their truth without fear, and with equality under the law (charity code: 0315683).

Ingersoll Gender Center – strengthening the autonomy of the transgender and gender nonconforming communities through facilitated peer support groups, medical provider referrals and community advocacy (charity code: 0316214).

Lambert House – empowering lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth through the development of leadership, social and life skills (charity code: 0320828).

Pride Foundation –  Pride Foundation inspires giving to expand opportunities and advance full equality for LGBTQ people across the Northwest. Since 1985, generous Pride Foundation donors have invested over 60 million in the LGBTQ movement in AK, ID, MT, OR, WA (charity code 0316716).

PFLAG – promoting the health and well being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, their families and friends through support, education and advocacy (charity code: 0524061).

Seattle LGBTQ+ Center (formerly Gay City) – cultivates access and connections in our communities through advocacy, accessibility, intersectionality, sex and body positivity, stewardship and transparency (charity code: 0315949).

The Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) – GLAAD is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation (charity code 0456944).

The Q Center – professionally supported resource, advocacy and mentoring center for queer students and concerns at UW, providing consulting to departments plus coordinates numerous programs, social organizations and educational initiatives for queer students (charity code: 0493258).

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) – promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation (charity code: 0456944).

The Trevor Project – providing life-saving, life-affirming programs and services to LGBTQIA+ youth to create safe, accepting and inclusive environments over the phone, online and through text (charity code: 1479131).