2019-2020 Highlights

Curious about what we did over the past year? Check out our highlights here.

We are proud to be a part of the Johns Hopkins community! Learn more about what we do from our PDF Document: annual report. We also invite you to watch this video with highlights of the past year.

Baltimore Pride Parade – June 15. LGBTQ Life was proud to lead a contingent of Hopkins students, staff, and faculty in the Baltimore Pride Parade. Our group included more than 300 people from across Hopkins, a bike float, a Blue Jay shuttle, and an ambulance. We are grateful for the support from across the institution.

National Coming Out Day Breakfast – October 11. We celebrated our community with a breakfast on National Coming Out Day. 60 people joined us in the LGBTQ Life office for bagels and coffee. We also made crafts with rainbow ribbons.

ThanksGAYving – November 21. DSAGA, GQSA, and LGBTQ Life collaborated to host a community dinner in Levering Great Hall. The event is timed right before Thanksgiving break so that students can connect with their chosen family before returning to their families of origin. This catered meal gathered about 100 students, staff, faculty, and alumni.

World AIDS Day Brunch – December 1. LGBTQ Life partners with the Sigma Sigma Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., the Sigma Chapter of Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad/Lambda Pi Chi Sorority, Inc., and the Rho Omega Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. to commemorate World AIDS Day. We honor the lives our community has lost to HIV/AIDS and recognize the prevention efforts of those who continue to fight the disease.

Show Your Love – February 14. We gave out more than 3,500 rainbow ribbons to people across the Hopkins enterprise, who wore the ribbons to show their love for the LGBTQ community. Participants also shared photos with the #JHUshowYourLove hashtag.

COVID-19 Response. Beginning in mid-March, all on-campus activities were suspended as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. LGBTQ Life shifted to virtual operations, hosting a number of social and educational engagement opportunities. This involved cancelling planned events and reimagining others. LGBTQ Life staff continued to meet to organize programming and support our community.

Virtual Lavender Celebration – May 3. Over 80 people joined us over Zoom to celebrate the end of the year. Introducers recorded a personal introduction to each of the graduates, creating a meaningful program for 36 graduates.

Education. Safe Zone trainings are 3 hour sessions that anyone can attend and learn more about the LGBTQ community. From June 2018 – May 2019, we trained 499 people in 31 sessions held across the Hopkins community. We held and collaborated on 31 educational speakers, panels, presentations, and discussions. We supported and facilitated Identity and Inclusion workshops with Diversity and Inclusion colleagues.

Advocacy. A large-scale project involves working towards the inclusion of pronouns in computer systems. We are also exploring the possibilities for enhancing gender identity collection in computer systems. Also, with the support of the Diversity Leadership Council, we are exploring ways to expand the resources available to LGBTQ members of the JH community.