Generations of Pride

Amount Awarded: $36,000.00 

Academic Year: 2023-2024 

Implementation: Active, Fall 2024 – Spring 2025 

Generations of Pride is a series of monthly LGBTQ+ intergenerational gatherings for the Whatcom County community hosted by WWU’s LGBTQ+ Western, the Psychology department’s LISTEN Lab, the Bellingham/Whatcom chapter of PFLAG, and the non-profit Bellingham Queer Collective. Many young adults in Bellingham, including Western students, are exploring their LGBTQ+ identities and need support and guidance from older people within their community. Many elders in our community also have a desire to serve our students and youth through such opportunities for connection in which they can share their experiences, support, and wisdom; and learn from young adults experiencing a new generation of LGBTQ+ life. 

Here is a quote from a research paper written by faculty and students from WWU’s Psychology department LISTEN Lab, which ultimately helped lead to the design and implementation of Generations of Pride: “We now ask you to imagine a dinner table surrounded by queer people of different generations, people with both unique personal stories, as well as shared experiences, elders whose stories serve as a diverse array of possibility models, who together can narrate some of the fabric of shared history to youth who are able to receive and participate in conversations with their elders, over a communal meal. What a new image this creates, one of possibilities, healing, and the continued threading of connected lives through time” (McLean, Moriaty, Starling, Weststrate, 2024). Check out more about the program.