Campus Pride Applauds SCOTUS, Will Continue Fighting for LGBTQ Youth

Campus Pride is very proud the Supreme Court’s decision this morning to bring marriage equality to the country.

This is an important decision that will have definite impacts on the lives of LGBTQ Americans, and is a decision that will stand in history as a huge win for our community. We should be proud of the massive amount of time and effort that went into securing this win. We honor those who have fought so hard to secure these rights and move toward giving same-sex couples the same legal rights as different-sex couples.

We hope this monumental decision will become a catalyst for further change within the LGBTQ community as we continue to strive to preserve rights for our community, especially our young community. At Campus Pride, our focus has always been on improving the lives of LGBTQ college and university students. Our work is not done, and we are excited to have his marriage equality win as proof that the lives of our LGBTQ community, especially our young community, has the possibility for improvement in the face of adversity.

The people of the LGBTQ movement, especially our youth, still needs concrete change. Campus Pride will continue to focus on these issues, especially the ones that affect our trans and gender nonconforming students. We will continue to examine the ways intersecting identities cause unique oppressions to groups such as the LGBTQ people of color within our community.

Marriage equality is an amazing win for our community that we will surely celebrate. We will also use the Supreme Court’s decision today as a chance to reinvigorate and revitalize our efforts that are so desperately needed in other aspects of our LGBTQ community.

Allison Marie Turner is an alumnus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied journalism and mass communication and women’s and gender studies. She is a 2015 Summer Fellow for Campus Pride. Follow her on Twitter @amturner1993.