Students danced to 80s music and had fun at the second annual Queer Prom (Photo courtesy of Lindsey Ukishima ’20)
By Phoebe Doscher, Assistant News Editor
Food, dancing, and ‘80s-themed outfits were all themes of this year’s Queer Prom, sponsored by Outerspace. Along with support from the Office of LGBTQA+ Advocacy and Education, Outerspace hosted around 75 attendees in the Attic last weekend on Friday, April 12 for the second annual event.
The students cycled in and out throughout the night, some taking advantage of the joint outer-space and ‘80s-themed photo booth area, while others broke it down on the dance floor. The event had a host provider as well as a wide array of food from wings to cookies and brownies.
Clad in retro outfits, students jammed out on the dance floor to ‘80s hits compiled by Mara Smeltzer ‘21. Prom Royalty were also crowned, with creative categories including Lowkey Party Animal; Funky-Fresh Moves; Gnarly Costume, Dude; Dynamic Duo; and Life of the Party.
Queer Prom brought music, snacks, and dancing to students on a Friday night (Photo courtesy of Lindsey Ukishima ’20)
Outerspace raised around $50 towards the LGBT Center of Central Pennsylvania by creating stickers to go along with the event. According to Lindsey Ukishima ‘21, Outerspace hopes to develop a relationship with the Center in the coming years and considers this donation fundraiser a step towards building that connection.
Ukishima also commented on the importance of Queer Prom for the Gettysburg community: “It provides students the opportunity to have the prom they want. For a lot of students in the LGBT+ community, they were unable to attend prom wearing what they wanted to wear or go to prom with who they wanted to go with. Queer Prom gives them this opportunity. We wanted it to be a safe space for people to just come, have fun, and be themselves.”
Although the attendance for last year’s prom was higher, perhaps attributed to the weather, Ukishima is hopeful for success in the coming years with the annual prom, which will continue to be “bigger and better.”
Outerspace will be hosting more events this semester, including a Pride Paint night, co-sponsored by the Women’s Center and the LGBTQA+ Center on Wednesday, April 24. Students can come together and paint t-shirts to show their pride.
