The upcoming pride month will be full of activities with all kinds of different associations on campus. It’s the result of the efforts of Compass, the foundation for the LGBTQIA+ community at TU/e. New board members have revived Compass this year and have started connecting with boards of other associations. Not only to organize activities together during pride month, which takes place throughout June, but also to be able to offer support to students from other associations. “Knowing that Compass exists already helps some students feel seen and at home,” says chairperson Petar Kalinov.

At least ten associations are actively participating in pride month. For instance, there will be a musical pub quiz with Studentproof Jazz, the Vegan Student Association is organizing a ‘fruity’ potluck, and rowing association Thêta’s boat will take part in the Eindhoven Pride Parade. There will also be an exhibition on ‘Queer Experiences’, in collaboration with Dekate Mousa, KL!NK, and Doppio. This is just a small sample of the many collaborations; there will be something on almost every day there. To participate in the activities, you don’t have to be part of the LGBTQIA+ community, emphasizes board member Sofia Zheleva. “Sometimes people see pride month as an event that excludes heterosexuals, but we actually want to bring everyone together. We’re all human beings.”

According to the students, now’s the time to connect with one another, as developments around the world aren’t exactly in their favor. In their own home country, Bulgaria, for example, a law banning LGBTQIA+ ‘propaganda’ from schools was introduced last year.  “We’re very concerned about everything that’s happening in the world,” Kalinov says. He hopes that the deteriorating climate for the community will cause more people to connect with each other and become actively involved in equal rights, for example through Compass.

Members of the association’s board are indeed seeing more and more active students and staff. Many also know how to find their way to Compass’ activities. “The other day we watched the Eurovision Song Contest together. We were about 25 people strong,” Kalinov says. The bike excursion the next day was less well attended, but he blames the possible hangovers after the Song Contest party. With a laugh, he says: “We lost a lot of people to those, I think.”

Unlike many other associations, Compass includes staff members. In fact, the foundation was founded by staff members in 2017, and board positions have previously been held by staff. Although the board is now entirely made up of students, and the activities during pride month are also mainly focused on students, the foundation does pay attention to staff as well. Kalinov: “We recently organized a get-together and many staff members came. They told us they’d like to do something like that every quarter.”

It took a lot of figuring out and effort, but the students are confident that Compass is back to stay. “We’ve already found new board members to take over, and we’ll soon put all of our knowledge and groundwork in their hands,” Zheleva says. But before they hand over the foundation to the new board, there will be pride month: the icing on the cake – a rainbow cake of course.

On Monday, June 2, Eric van der Geer-Rutten-Rijswijk, secretary to the Executive Board, will open pride month with a speech and the raising of the rainbow flag. Visit the Compass website for the full pride month program.