Pride Month 2026
Happy Pride Month 2026, everyone! At Michigan State University, we celebrate LGBTQIA2S+ Pride Month each April to ensure that all our students, faculty, staff, and community Spartans can join us in our events. Take a look at the upcoming events list below; we hope you'll join us! Please contact us via gscc@msu.edu with any questions.
Note: The events on this list with hosts other than "Gender and Sexuality Campus Center" listed were sourced from a Call for Programs Qualtrics open from January through March 2026. If you, your office, or your RSO are hosting an event during Pride Month that you would like for us to feature, please email us at gscc@msu.edu with the event details.
- Thursday, April 2nd: Clothing Swap
- 10am to 4pm
- Multicultural Center, Room 1020
- Host: Gender and Sexuality Campus Center
- Collaborator(s): Spartan Upcycle, Career Services Network
- Feel free to bring clothes to share and swap!
- Thursday, April 2nd: Pride Meditative Worship
- 6:30pm
- 225 M.A.C., in between Chateau Coffee and The Riv
- Description: Dinner will be provided, then we will move into a time of worship with relaxation techniques and immersing ourselves into the story of Jesus, including Holy Communion.
- Host: Canterbury MSU
- Monday, April 6th: Unpacking White Supremacy (Agriculture and Environmental Professions)
- 5pm to 7:30pm
- PSSB A148
- Host: Gender and Sexuality Campus Center
- Tuesday, April 7th: Pride Dinner and Guest Speaker
- 6:30pm to 7:30pm
- Erickson Hall A128
- Description: Celebrate MSU's Pride Month with LGBTQIA+ advocate and guest speaker Lexie Guo and enjoy some catered food!
- Host: Planned Parenthood Generation Action of MSU
- Wednesday, April 8th: Lev Raphael: An Exploration of Queer Noir Fiction
- 2pm to 4pm
- Main Library, Seminar Room W101B
- Description: 2026 marks the 30th year anniversary of the publication of Lev Raphael's academic mystery ‘Let’s Get Criminal.’ A Lambda Literary Award winner and former MSU faculty member, Lev Raphael is a pioneer in writing about the gay Jewish experience in America. His archive is featured within the Michigan Writers Collection at Murray & Hong Special Collections. This exhibit will serve as an exploration into some of the themes in Raphael’s writing, particularly those within his mystery series.
- Host: Special Collections
- Wednesday, April 8th: Speed Dating & Friend-ing
- 6pm to 8pm
- STEM 2201
- Host: Gender and Sexuality Campus Center
- Friday, April 10th: Pride Prom
- 7pm to 10pm
- MSU Union Ballroom
- Theme: Making Waves
- Host: Gender and Sexuality Campus Center
- Collaborator(s): Creative Club, Alliance of Queer and Ally Students
- Sunday, April 12th: Creative Resistance: An Art Exhibition
- 1pm
- RCAH Theater
- An exhibition/performance featuring many different types of art following the theme "creative resistance."
- Host: The Creative Club
- Monday, April 13th: Pride (No)Sewcial Brunch
- 6pm to 7:30pm
- STEM 2130
- Description: Stop by for tie-blankets, breakfast/brunch items, a dirty soda bar, photo scrapbooking, and more!
- Host: University Activities Board
- Collaborator(s): Gender and Sexuality Campus Center
- Tuesday, April 14th: Mini Pride Parade
- 6pm to 8pm
- Multicultural Center Courtyard
- Description: Decorate RC cars to make a mini Pride Parade!
- Host: Alliance
- Tuesday, April 14th: Family Dinner x Color Me Queer
- 6pm to 8pm
- Multicultural Center Community Kitchen
- Dinner provided (Yum Yum Bento)
- Host: Gender and Sexuality Campus Center
- Friday, April 17th: Trans Allyship Workshop
- 12pm to 2pm
- SSB 110
- Bring your lunch and eat while you learn valuable skills about demonstrating allyship!
- Host: Gender and Sexuality Campus Center
- Friday, April 17th: West Circle Pride LGBTQIA2S+ Social
- 6pm to 8pm
- Campbell Great Hall
- Host: West Circle Pride
- Collaborator(s): several, including Gender and Sexuality Campus Center
- Saturday, April 18th: Gay Outdoors
- 1pm to 3pm
- Sanford Nature Area
- Host: Gender and Sexuality Campus Center
- Collaborator(s): MANRRS, Beal Garden, Bug Club, BRANCH, Students for Cultivating Change, Women in Conservation, Spartan Sierra Club
- Sunday, April 19th: Lavender Reception and Advocacy & Action Awards
- 1pm to 2:30pm
- Kellogg Center, Lincoln Room
- Host: Gender and Sexuality Campus Center
- Tuesday, April 21st: Unpacking White Supremacy (Non-Profits, Advocacy, and Activism)
- 5pm to 7:30pm
- SSB 110
- Host: Gender and Sexuality Campus Center
- Tuesday, April 21st: Women's and Gender Studies Undergraduate Research Poster Showcase
- 6pm to 8:30pm
- Erickson Kiva (Room 103)
- Description: This April 21st from 6-8:30pm, the WGS program and our large intro class (WS201) are holding an undergraduate research conference, with applications open for students to submit their work and present with us! The format will be a relaxed poster-fair style event with two time slots open (6-7pm or 7:15-8:15pm) and prizes for best poster during each session. Any topics related to Women's, Gender, or Sexuality Studies or adjacent areas of social identity or advocacy are welcome, including from past or current coursework, advocacy projects, internships, or research roles.
- Host: Center for Gender in Global Context
- Wednesday, April 22nd: Masquerade Hangout
- 8pm to 10pm
- Minskoff Pavillion, M230
- Host: Chains
- Thursday, April 23rd: Tie-Dye and Paint the Rock
- 7pm
- The Rock
- Description: Join oSTEM to tie-dye bandanas and paint the Rock with a positive community message. Bandanas, dye, and paint will be provided, but feel free to bring other items to dye as well! You are welcome to stick around for a campout after the event, but overnight supplies will not be provided.
- Host: oSTEM
- Collaborator(s): MSU Alliance, PRISM
All programs and activities are open to all without restriction or preference based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, national origin or other protected personal identity.
What Guides Us
The core values of The Gender and Sexuality Campus Center work as a framework for understanding who we are and what foundationally guides our work. These values serve as programmatic pillars for our work and each of our programs is directly tied to at least one of our values.
Justice
We center the voices and experiences of people with marginalized identities in an effort to build a more just and equitable community. We work to dismantle structures of oppression and advocate for the needs, safety, and wellbeing Queer and Trans Spartans.
Transformation
At the heart of our work is the possibility of growth and development for all people and communities. We believe that change is possible and necessary to achieve a world where we all are free. We believe that another campus, and another world, are possible and we dream that change into being.
Love
We believe we are all connected and all humans are worthy of love, dignity, and respect. We know that love is not possible without justice. Love means lifting each other up and guiding each other because our liberation is intrinsically tied together. We know that our strength comes from collective power. Queer and trans people have survived through mutual aid, humor, and rebellious love. We are committed to love as a verb, as an act of community building and as a proactive ethic for justice-based work. As bell hooks states: “Love is an act of will, both an intention and an action.”
Joy
We celebrate Pride in the sincere belief that pleasure is liberating and freedom is possible.The cultivation and sharing of joy is a strategy for resistance and resilience. It is an expression of our commitment to ourselves and one another and. We celebrate our histories and welcome our futures with joy in our hearts.
Intersectionality
We understand intersectionality to be a theory of oppression, first named by Kimberlé Crenshaw. We view our work through an intersectional lens, centering those at the margins of the margins and dismantling oppression through education and connection.We know that oppression is complex and multiple marginalized identities intersect and compound one another to create unique experiences of oppression. We believe that none of us is free until all of us are free. We use the power we have to lift up the voices and visions of those who have been granted less power.
Courage
We must do our work with bravery and honesty, not shying away from necessary conflict. We believe our work requires us to be accountable to all of our communities if we are to succeed. We are creating new possibilities as we go and that takes collective courage. At the very heart of justice is the willingness to tell the truth about what is and to speak into existence what must be. As James Baldwin states: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.