Valentine's Day. It's the one day of the year set aside for people in couples everywhere to show each other how much they care. But not everyone feels like they get the same chance to express their love for each other on the romantic holiday. This Valentine's Day, one group of people did something to change that.
LLEGO, an organization for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, held a Valentine's Day party last night, along with BiGLARU, the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Rutgers University, another LGBT group on campus. Organizers planned the event, called the Queer Cupid Party, to show the University that the LGBT community could celebrate the holiday too. The party took place in the Multipurpose Room of the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus.
"Valentine's Day is usually a hetero-normative holiday, and we wanted to [have] the party on Valentine's Day just to show that it's not just heterosexuals who celebrate Valentine's Day," said LLEGO President Ana Maria Rexach, a Rutgers College junior. "Love can be expressed in different ways with different people, no matter your gender or your sex. So we just wanted to say that we too can celebrate Valentine's Day, and we too can have programs on Valentine's Day because there's rarely any programs for the LGBT community, especially holiday programs like [on] Valentine's Day."
Group members said the party serves the dual role of providing an opportunity for LLEGO members to get together and have some fun on Valentine's Day as well as making a statement to the University for the LGBT community.
"It's not like some protest against hetero-normativity," said LLEGO officer Ian Campbell, a School of Arts and Sciences student. "It's just going to be a venue for a typically overlooked group to celebrate a holiday that's generally associated with heterosexuals."
LLEGO members expressed excitement over party plans, which included music by DJ Cypher, Valentine's Day decorations, dance contests, games, prizes and even a Britney Spears impression contest. Members of the LLEGO e-board dressed up in cupid costumes, and to top off the evening, there was chocolate fondue with strawberries and bananas for dipping as well as cookies, brownies and chocolate Hershey's Kisses.
Rexach said what motivated the groups to put on the event was frequent requests from members to create more of a presence on campus.
"My members were telling me how they wanted more LGBT programs and how we want to be out there, and we want people to know that there's an LGBT organization here, and we are active so that other students who are out or not out can spot us," she said.
LLEGO and BiGLARU treasurer Melissa Meola, a Mason Gross School of the Arts first-year student, said the organizations are about students in the LGBT community having a place to go where they know they can feel comfortable and safe.
Although organizations within the LGBT community hosted the Queer Cupid Party, group members stressed that all were welcome to attend.
"We encourage attendance by allies. It's not like, 'Oh you're straight? You're not allowed here,'" Campbell said. "If you're alive, you can come."
The party is just a start for LLEGO group members, who plan to continue to push for an increased presence on campus.
Raxach and Meola said they are trying to get a Universitywide initiative put through to make April gay pride month at the University. They plan to call the monthlong event "Gaypril."
During the "Gaypril," the group will host a series of events to bring awareness to the LGBT community.
"We're going to do a pink elephant march against injustice and for equality," Raxach said. "We're going to march from the student center to Voorhees Mall and have a rally [there]. Since it's against injustice and for equality, there are a lot of other organizations that want to march with us."
LLEGO members said the march would be on or around April 4, the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Members of the United Black Council plan to participate in the march.
Over the past year, LLEGO has grown by leaps and bounds, and they hope to continue to do so.
"This year, we decided to really put ourselves out there," Raxach said. "We wanted Llego to be known as a big organization."
