The Pride Alliance at Iowa State has undergone some changes after Gov. Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 2435 (SF 2435) into law on May 9, 2024. The bill prohibits public universities in Iowa from funding, maintaining and creating DEI offices.
Before SF 2435, employees at The Center, a space in the Memorial Union formerly known as The Center for LGBTQIA+ Student Success, planned for Lavender Graduation, an event where graduating students are recognized for their academic and personal achievements.
“We didn’t find out about taking over Lavender Graduation until January or February of this year,” Alexis Newport, the activism chair of The Pride Alliance, said. “We’ve had a drastically shorter time frame to work with, without having full-time employees.”
Nearly one year after taking effect, SF 2435 has imposed restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts at higher education institutions and sought to revoke funding for universities that did not comply with the law, according to the Iowa Legislature website.
DEI office employees who worked at the Center and helped The Pride Alliance put on events in previous years were either fired or placed elsewhere in the university, according to Newport.
“The biggest adjustment has been the workload, but also investment in the community,” Newport said. “We lost our resources, so a lot more people have been involved, like our team doubled this semester.”
Although preparation for club events has been difficult, Newport said The Pride Alliance coordinates with other campus organizations like Planned Parenthood Generation, Asexual Aromantic Alliance, Gamma Rho Lambda (GRL) and Veterinarians as One Inclusive Community for Empowerment (VOICE) for extra help.
“The joint effort has been our way to cope with the workload and an opportunity to get more people involved,” Newport said.
Recently, The Pride Alliance has received criticism from the ISU College Republicans for hosting the annual Spring Drag Show, according to previous reporting from the Daily.
The College Republicans condemned the drag show in an Instagram statement, saying the event represented “a blatant promotion of cultural decadence and moral decay” and was “funded and endorsed” by the student government and other university resources.
Newport said the College Republicans’ claim about using university funds for the most recent Spring Drag Show was false.
“Their main complaint was about us receiving funding from Iowa State, which is not really something that happened,” Newport said. “We used a lot of flyer distribution at the MU that is free to use for student organizations and a lot of the funds that we used were previously fundraised from past drag shows. Any funding that came through the university was general blanket funding that they get. It wasn’t specifically for our event.”
Despite criticism from the College Republicans, Newport said the Spring Drag Show was a success and helped support the Ames community.
“We know that this is an event that really helps bring together the community, helps our local drag performers, helps students de-stress before finals and witness a great show,” Newport said. “We went with all local queens and all of the catering was local, so we tried to really support the community as much as we can.”
Jaymes McShane, the social media chair for The Pride Alliance, said that although he manages some outside noise, most of the social media engagement and messages the club receives are positive.
“We don’t really get a lot of hate messages,” McShane said. “Sometimes, the College of Republicans will just post something, but they don’t really come at us, which we are grateful for.”
McShane said attendance for The Pride Alliance meetings and events has stayed mostly the same from previous years, but the perception among LGBTQIA+ students about Iowa State has changed.
“I know there are students that feel like Iowa State isn’t as accepting anymore and so I feel like, with the queer community, involvement has gone down,” McShane said. “We do have a decent amount of people that go to our meetings, but there’s definitely that feeling of ‘Oh, Iowa State isn’t as accepting anymore, so we’re just going to hide away for a bit.’”
McShane said he encourages any interested students looking for a community to join The Pride Alliance.
“It’s a place where you can be safe and act like yourself,” McShane said. “We try to have fun activities like our game nights and identity socials.”
Newport said the loss of resources for LGBTQIA+ students at Iowa State is disheartening, but The Pride Alliance will look to make the best out of the situation.
“One of the ways to keep moving forward in this era we’re in is to find people who are going through it with you,” Newport said. “Going to clubs, engaging in activities and building connections with other students at Iowa State is something that will be very important going forward. It is something that can really help our community stay together and not fracture over these losses of resources.”
To learn more about and get involved with The Pride Alliance, visit their Instagram and their student organization page.
