Fifty USC Trojans marched in the LA Pride Parade as part of a campus-wide initiative from Marshall‘s Gay & Lesbian Association, which sponsored registration costs for the event, in partnership with the USC LGBT Resource Center.
Participants walked as part of the LGBT Resource Center’s contingent during the annual gathering, one of the largest of the nationwide pride events taking place the first weekend in June. The L.A. parade on June 8, for which recording artist Demi Lovato served as grand marshall, drew around 400,000 attendees.
Joanne Rapadas, MBA ’16, vice president, Community & Events for Marshall’s Gay & Lesbian Association, said their sponsorship of the parade was one of their first steps in partnering with the resource center and promoting the diversity of Marshall and the greater USC community.
“USC consistently ranks as one of the top 25 universities in the country in terms of being LGBT-friendly for students in the Campus Pride Index. It’s also considered the most resourceful school for LGBT students from Nerd Scholar. We’ve made a lot of strides on campus in terms of supporting this population of students, in large part due to Vincent Vigil, previous USC LGBT resource director, but I think we do have potential to reach out to the greater L.A. community and make a big impact,” said Rapadas.
Later this June, the student association will be working with the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center to offer a leadership workshop at their homeless youth center in Hollywood.