Out@AUT Celebrates 20 Years
Nam Đúc Trần (he/him) Hi gays (and those poor unfortunate souls who are not), It’s Pride month (at the time of writing) so you know what that means: it’s time to stand up, get a bowl of popcorn, and sit your ass down to rewatch Pose for the millionth time because unfortunately, big pride events such as Big Gay Out and Pride March have been canceled due to Covid. Fortunately, Out@AUT has come to pick up the slack, because this is our club’s 20th anniversary, honey, and we are ready to party, bitches!
The great news is that Out@AUT has many events lined up, and here are the top three. The first one is that the Rainbow Room has been moved and its makeover will have people lining up to take it to prom (which is happening, definitely). The second one is that to make up for the cancelled pride events, we’re planning to have a full-on Pride week, happening in June (the less cool Pride month, as it is commonly known). And last but definitely not least, the grand finale is the Queer Ball happening at the end of the year, where we’re gonna give you an eleganza extravaganza.
Now, some of you reading this might go: “Have the gays really existed that long?” Well, how about I give you a bit of a history lesson. Twenty years ago was 2002, the year the first Spider-Man movie came out and two years after AUT was founded (I hope you feel old, I know I do). Second of all, our club members made quite a discovery last year when we were giving our good ol’ Rainbow Room a makeover. Hidden behind the cobwebs, the glitter, and the mysterious suitcase that no one dared to open was an old visitor log for queer students to sign in. And, it was this year that the first entry was dated. Therefore, we have decided that 2002 is our club’s 20th anniversary, and we are making it gayer than ever!
In all seriousness, for a lot of us, it has been a difficult, challenging, and worst of all, uncertain time. All these changes, all the delays, they all seem like huge waves crashing down on our tiny bodies, leaving us underwater, struggling to come up for air. Even though we will try our best to make the plans happen, I cannot guarantee that they won’t be cancelled last minute just because another Covid variant decided to crash the party. Regardless, we shall persevere. To a lot of people (myself included), being queer is synonymous with being a rebel, a daredevil. Then, for 2022, I shall be queer by daring to have fun (responsibly!), to find joy in a world that’s seemingly trying to pull you down at every second, and I invite you all to do the same. Don’t forget to get your vaccines and boosters too, so we can finally cancel Miss Rona for good!
As we all know, the past two years have been… not that great. To put it simply: 2020? Gutted! 2021? Rotted.
Yours truly, Out@AUT
