Main content
Celebrate LGBT History Month across Emory
Participants in the 2023 Atlanta Pride Parade holding an Emory banner

Get the scoop on upcoming events celebrating LGBT History Month and find out how you can participate in Atlanta Pride with Emory. Check back throughout October for more updates.

— Photo by Sarah Woods, Emory Photo/Video

LGBT History Month begins Tuesday, Oct. 1, and runs through the end of the month. Check out the following events across Emory to celebrate the history of the LGBT community and build connections for the future.

From celebrating at the downtown Atlanta Pride Parade to lectures and workshops on campus — and everything in between — there are plenty of ways to show your pride this month.


First Gen Friday: Brunch and Brushes

Friday, Oct. 4, 11:30 a.m., Emory First Office, Cox Hall, Room 322

Show your LGBTQ and First-Gen Pride at the Office of LGBT Life and Emory First’s First Gen Friday! Attendees will enjoy brunch and paint with their favorite Pride colors.


LGBTQ+ History Month Open House

Tuesday, Oct. 8, 1 p.m., Rose Library, 10th floor of Woodruff Library

Join Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library outreach archivist Gaby Hale, who will discuss items on display from the library’s LGBTQ+ collections, which include the papers of activists and organizations who fought (and continue to fight) for LGBTQ rights and equality. This will be the second of Rose’s newly launched Miscellaneous Monthly open house series. Members of the Emory community and the public are welcome to attend.

Find out more about the LGBTQ+ Collections on the Rose Library website.


Pride and Latine Heritage Month Wonderful Wednesday

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 12 p.m., McDonough Plaza and Emory Student Center Promenade

During Wonderful Wednesday, join the Office of LGBT Life and Centro Latinx to celebrate LGBT History Month and the end of Latine Heritage Month by learning about prominent queer Latine figures. Rainbow flag loteria card stickers, rainbow popcorn and Pride buttons will be available. 


Fall Student Night

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 5 p.m., Michael C. Carlos Museum

The Carlos Museum is open late for Emory students! Venture into the galleries to connect with peers and works of art centered on themes like identity, gender and sexuality, from ancient to contemporary. Bring gently used clothing to exchange in a clothing exchange, express yourself and design a hat to show off what makes you, you. Free food and swag while supplies last. After student night, head to the Rose Library Drag Show.


Pride Shirt Glam-Up

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 6 p.m., Cox Hall Tech Lab

Get your Pride shirt parade ready with the Office of LGBT Life. Join the DIY session to crop, chop and customize your Emory Pride shirt for the following weekend’s parade using all the maker’s tools in the Cox Hall Tech Lab. Participants must be registered for the Atlanta Pride Parade.


Rose Library Drag Show

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 7 p.m., Rose Library, 10th floor of Woodruff Library

Drag queens put on an entertaining show in the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library for the fourth annual Rose Library Drag Show. The show, which celebrates the library’s LGBTQ+ collections, is free and open to the public.


Rose Library Booth at the 2024 Atlanta Pride Festival

Saturday, Oct. 12, and Sunday, Oct. 13, Piedmont Park

Stop and visit the Rose Library booth at the Atlanta Pride Festival, located on Oak Hill between the 12th Street Gate and the Meadow from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 12, and 1-5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 13. The booth is near the panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt, which will be on display at Oak Hill on Saturday from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. 

At the Rose Library booth, write a special postcard to the past, present or future (Rose Library staff can mail the card for you, or you can place it in the LGBTQ+ collections), or access the finding aids for the collections of activists such as Jesse Peel, Bruce Garner and Rebecca Ranson. The booth is open to the public and the Emory community.


Atlanta Pride Parade and Pre-Pride Breakfast

Sunday, Oct. 13, 9:30 a.m., Goizueta Business School, Jenkins Courtyard

Join LGBT Life and the Emory community for a pre-parade breakfast and Emory’s annual spot in the Atlanta Pride Parade. Transportation to the parade starting point will be provided and participants will receive free shirts. Shuttles leave Goizueta at 10:30 a.m. for the noon parade. The entire Emory community is invited to participate, and registration is required.

This event is in collaboration with Emory Healthcare; Emory Pride Employee Network; Student Involvement, Leadership and Transitions; Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; School of Medicine; and Goizueta Business School.

Participants will be responsible for arranging their own transportation back to campus after the parade has ended.


International Pronouns Day Button-making

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 11 a.m., Woodruff Library lobby

Make a button to declare your identity, support others as an ally or convey another positive message at this popular event, co-sponsored by the Emory Libraries Preservation Department. The event celebrating International Pronouns Day is free and open to Emory students, faculty and staff.


Beloved Community Worship: Pride Month Service

Sunday, Oct. 20, 11 a.m., Cannon Chapel

This year’s Pride Month Service preacher is The Rev. Duncan Teague 12T, pastor at Abundant Love Unitarian Universalist (UU) Congregation. This event is open to the entire Emory community.  The service will be followed by a noon lunch.

Beloved Community is Emory’s progressive, ecumenical Protestant worshipping community. Beloved Community’s membership includes currently registered Emory undergraduate students, but others are invited to join in worship and activities, including graduate and professional students, faculty, staff and members of the wider community.

For questions, contact The Rev. Maddie Herlong at mhend25@emory.edu.


William T. Branch Jr. Innovations in Primary Care Lecture: “The Hidden Cost of Social Inequities: Addressing the Toll of Transphobia on Health” with Tonia Poteat

Wednesday, Oct. 23, 6 p.m., School of Medicine, Room 110

Alum of the Emory Physicians Assistant program, Tonia Poteat will present this year’s Innovations in Primary Care lecture.

Poteat is a professor in the Duke University School of Nursing, co-director of the Duke Sexual and Gender Minority Wellness program and associate director of the Duke Center for Aids Research Developmental Core. Her research, teaching, and clinical practice focus on LGBTQ health and HIV with particular attention to the health of transgender and gender-diverse communities.

This event is open to the entire Emory community, but registration is required.


Atlanta’s 1990s LGBTQ+ and Arts Scene: A Talk with Artist Royce Soble and Curator Randy Gue

Saturday, Oct. 26, 1 p.m., Woodruff Library, Jones Room (third floor)

As part of Emory Homecoming Weekend events, photographer and multimedia artist Royce Soble, whose work documents Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ community and arts scene in the 1990s, will be in conversation with Rose Library’s curator of Political, Cultural, and Social Movements, Randy Gue. Soble’s photographs, journals and other digital materials are archived in the Rose Library’s collections.

No registration is required for this event, which is open to the public.


Recent News