Pride Alliance distributes flags to eating clubs

Cap & Gown Club, Cloister Inn, Colonial Club, Quadrangle Club, Terrace Club and Tower Club are all displaying rainbow flags outside in honor of LGBT Pride Week, which runs April 11–17.

Charter Club, Cottage Club, Ivy Club and Tiger Inn were not displaying flags on Thursday evening.

Ryan Corey ’12, secretary of the Pride Alliance, spearheaded efforts to have a flag displayed at each of the 10 eating clubs as a sign of solidarity with LGBT students.

“The idea is that it’s Pride Week and we want to involve as much of the University as possible in celebrating Princeton’s LGBT community,” he said. “The Street is such a big part of Princeton’s social life.”

Thanithia Billings ’11, Pride Alliance co-president, said she learned that Ivy and Cottage did not put up flags “due to policy and not unwillingness.”

Ivy president John Zacharias ’11, Cottage president Chris Della Porta ’11, Cap president Rachel Blum ’11 and Cloister president Barrett LaChance ’11 could not be reached for comment. TI president Michael Portillo ’11 and Charter president Justin Knutson ’11 declined to comment.

The flag initiative is just one of the several Pride Week events aimed at giving LGBT students and their allies the opportunity to show support for the LGBT community on campus, Billings said.

Corey said he hoped the flag campaign would become an ongoing project.

“We handed out the flags with the intent of using them year after year,” he explained. “I hope this will happen for many years.”

This year’s Pride Week has been “one of the most visible” Billings has seen, she said, noting that “the eating clubs were a big part of that.”

“Colonial is a safe place for people of all backgrounds,” club president David Hou ’11 said in an e-mail. “We have displayed the rainbow flag outside our club as a sign of support during Pride Week.” Hou is a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.

Quad president Eric Salazar ’11 said in an e-mail that he decided to display a flag at his club after discussing the issue with other club presidents.

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“We discussed flying the flags in the ICC and then I asked the Quad Grad Board for permission,” he explained. “We have a number of LGBT students in the club and I felt it was important to show them support and show the Princeton community that Quad, along with the rest of the Street, is accepting of the LGBT community."

The Tower officers decided to display the flag “after much deliberation,” club president Martin Scheeler ’11 said in an e-mail.

“The flag is not meant to be any sort of statement about the religious or political beliefs of the [officer] corps or the club as a whole, as we understand fully that the flag in no way represents any viewpoint that would be applicable to the entire club membership,” he explained. “The flag is meant to be a symbol of this diversity, and our unity as a club against any form of hatred or violence that would make anyone, of any sexual orientation, feel unsafe in our club.”

Scheeler noted that the reaction to the flag has been quite positive.

“I’ve received numerous e-mails from members supporting the club’s decision and gotten a lot of positive feedback in person,” he said.

Andrew Chong ’11, president of Terrace, made the decision to display the flag outside of his club, he said in an e-mail. Chong is also a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.

“I’ve always thought of Terrace as a place somewhere over the rainbow, and now it really is,” he explained. “I made the decision to put up the flag with the membership’s interests at heart. There’s a color in there for everyone.”

Like Scheeler, Chong said that he has received overwhelmingly positive feedback about the flag.

“All the Terrans I’ve spoken to have been very happy to see the flag flying,” he noted. “We open our doors for people of all creeds, races and orientations so long as they’re mad chill, and I see this flag as a representation of this ideal.”