A&M Pride Center to be rebranded after Senate Bill 17 prohibits DEI initiatives

Nicholas Gutteridge

November 3, 2023

The LGBTQ+ Pride Center on campus. .

The Texas A&M Pride Center will be rebranded to the Student Life Center in the coming months, according to a Nov. 2 press release by the Queer Empowerment Council, or QEC.

The change is another repercussion of SB 17, a Texas law passed in the last legislative session that prohibits diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public institutions. The statement said that while the physical space will remain unchanged in the Student Services Building, LGBTQIA+ campus groups and organizations will be continuing activities and initiatives the pride center previously sponsored.

The QEC will be taking over multiple events the Pride Center previously hosted, such as the Lavender Graduation, a separate graduation ceremony for LGBTQIA+ students, the Coming Out Monologues, an event where participants told their coming-out story to an audience, and the Pride Mentors, a mentorship program that focuses on LGBTQIA+ students and community members. The QEC will also be hosting Draggieland in the spring, according to the statement.

The QEC is a newly-formed council of LGBTQIA+ student organizations, including the Queer Graduate and Professional Aggies, Transcend, oSTEM at A&M, LGBTQ Aggies, FLAKE, PrideSVMC and MedPRIDE.

“We will also act as a resource for the LGBTQIA+ population here at [A&M] and plan to release a collection of resources for LGBTQIA+ students and community members to ease this transition,” the statement reads.

The Pride Center’s rebranding to the Student Life Center will be done no later than Jan. 1, 2024, according to the statement, as that is the latest date institutions need to be in compliance with SB 17.

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About the Contributor

Nicholas Gutteridge, Managing Editor

Nicholas Gutteridge joined The Battalion in January 2023 as a news reporter before being promoted to news editor in August 2023. He has interned at The Pentagon in Washington D.C. and remotely with the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. As a political science student, he studies the internal workings of political positions, and as a journalist, he seeks to bring those internal workings to light. He is the managing editor of The Battalion for the 2024-25 academic year. Nicholas writes in-depth stories on topics important to students and community members. Previous articles include a dive into a student organization bringing students in contact with a sex offender, a feature on students alleging abuse and manipulation at a local church, and an investigative report on Texas A&M's Title IX enforcement. Nicholas has published work in The Aggieland yearbook and the Maroon Life magazine. He has been honored with multiple nationwide awards, including first-place in-depth news story and first-place feature story. In September 2024, he won second place for nationwide reporter of the year, the most intense individual competition in collegiate journalism.