Pride Week highlights visibility of, support for LGBTQ+ community
UND Pride Week calls attention to support University offers to LGBTQ+ population
“In the 90s, UND was kind of my only place of sanctuary,” said Darin Buri, facility and library manager at the College of Engineering & Mines, reflecting on his experience as a gay student during UND’s 2024 Pride Week panel.
Moderated by Pride Center Director Jeff Maliskey, the panel included Buri and Teaching Transformation and Development Academy Instructional Designer Bridget Brooks. The conversation focused on the panelists’ experiences as LGBTQ+ students and employees at UND.
Buri arrived at UND in 1996, still grappling with his identity. “When I came here, I thought I was sick because that’s what they taught back then,” Buri said.
A visit to the Student Counseling Center ultimately changed Buri’s perspective. During an appointment with counselor Tim Seaworth, Buri was told, “There’s nothing wrong with you. This is who you are, and that’s okay.” This led Buri to the 10 Percent Society, now the Queer-Trans Alliance, where he found a community that helped him come to terms with his identity.
Bridget Brooks said that UND’s Pride Center, the only LGBTQ+ center at a North Dakota higher education institution, offers a similar refuge for today’s LGBTQ+ students.
“This is something that our students need,” Brooks said. “And we need LGBTQ+ students to know that when they come to campus, the center is here.”
Brooks, who jokingly referred to her three-decade history at UND as her “longest relationship,” said that the Pride Center offers a similar refuge for today’s LGBTQ+ students, a place where they feel accepted and a sense of belonging.
“I don’t want an 18-year-old student to come here and not feel like there’s a place for them,” Brooks said. “We need those students to know that when they come to campus, the center is here.”
LGBTQ+ visibility on campus
Brooks shared that, over the years, her experience as an LGBTQ+ person at UND has changed dramatically. As a student, Brooks said that she often found herself feeling fearful of being outed as gay. Though she was open about her identity to friends and family when she started working as an academic coordinator for the Master of Public Health Program in 2012, she was nervous about revealing that side of herself at work.
“But, when I came back to UND in February of 2023, I introduced my coworkers to my wife, and it felt like it was normalized. That meant a lot to me,” she said, adding that seeing the OutList on UND’s website brought tears to her eyes. “When I saw that, I thought, ‘I can be myself, I’m accepted here.’”
Brooks said that she and her wife have taken steps to ensure the Pride Center stays on campus by creating the UND LGBTQ+ Endowment to help fund the Center’s operations.
Maliskey noted that broader visibility of LGBTQ+ support has a meaningful impact statewide, citing workforce concerns in states such as Texas, where cuts to DEI funding have led to some 80 people losing their jobs.
“When support programs are cut, there’s also a workforce impact. LGBTQ+ students and faculty and the people that value them won’t want to work or bring their research to the state if they don’t feel recognized,” he said.
Buri agreed, emphasizing that, much like the 10 Percent Society helped him navigate a difficult time in his life, students today still struggle to come to terms with their identities.
“I’ve had students come to me to talk in the library when they were afraid their parents would disown them,” he said. “It’s rough, it’s still very rough. That’s why we need to be visible, so those people can see that we’re here and that they’re not alone, they do have a place to go.”
Justin Montigne, a voice teacher and assistant professor of music, echoed this sentiment during an informal question-and-answer session on the panel, telling the audience that he may not have felt comfortable coming to North Dakota if not for UND’s concerted effort to be inclusive.
“When I came here in 2022, the Pride Center and the acceptance of LGBTQ+ faculty were a primary factor in me feeling comfortable coming from California to teach at UND,” he said. “Having that culture on campus really made me feel safe at UND.”
Video info for struggling North Dakotans
Elsewhere on campus, another department has embarked on a similar community-driven project to support the state’s LGBTQ+ populations.
Tiffany Russell, an assistant professor of psychology, has been working with graduate students to create informative videos relevant to LGBTQ+ North Dakotans.
These videos cover topics such as practicing good sleep hygiene and navigating the queer and trans experience. The project began after a colleague contacted Russell about the state’s need for more support resources.
“A community organizer contacted me in response to the death of Nex Benedict, a student in Oklahoma who died by suicide after being bullied in a bathroom at school,” Russell said. “Many LGBTQ+ people were distressed by this, and we realized there were very few resources to help them in North Dakota.”
Russell and her students had been talking about the effectiveness of community outreach for underserved and vulnerable communities and wanted to use these videos to offer support.
“We wanted these individuals to know that they’re not alone. This is important because we have so many people in rural communities here in North Dakota, and many queer and trans kids living there feel really lonely and have trouble finding support,” Russell said. “Our students were really excited about this, and I’m incredibly proud of them for stepping up and wanting to help the community.”
The videos can be found on the UND College of Arts & Sciences YouTube page Each was written and filmed by psychology students at the Pride Center’s lounge.
