On Oct. 9, SEU students came together to celebrate the 2025 Pride Ball in the Mabee Ballrooms in Ragsdale. Organized by Pride and Trans Wellness Organization (TWO), the Pride Ball is an annual celebration of diversity on our campus that brings both queer and non-queer students together for a night of connection, fun activities, amazing music, dancing and free food. This year’s theme of the ball was “Circus.”
The eclectic evening featured a game of musical chairs, raffle giveaways and dancing. Many students came into the event hopeful to meet and connect with other queer students. “I wanted to get involved with other queer freshmen on campus,” Madison Barrera said.
The event was also an amazing opportunity to dress up, put on a costume or add flare to an outfit. Both attendees and organizers alike showed up with animal costumes in homage to circus animals, makeup referencing the classic circus clowns and a bearded lady, an otherwise niche form of entertainment spectacle of the circuses of the past.
The Pride Ball served as a reminder that queer students are living and thriving on campus despite current political circumstances.
“Taking into consideration the political climate… [the organizers] feel their work is significantly more important now to show queer students that they’re safe, valued, welcomed and worthy of respect and protection as much as any other student,” TWO organizer Logan Counce said.
Erin Yarborough, another organizer from Pride, stated how organizing the Pride Ball this year differed from previous years. “Everybody [organizers] has more fire in their belly this year,” Yarbrough said. “Pride Ball, to me, is a celebration and it’s a special sanction for queer students.”
The Pride Ball is meant to serve the queer student community in remembering what it means to be inclusive, build community and have fun. Attendee Samuel Perez expressed that talking and interacting with other people was the best part of the evening. “Everyone is here to have fun and there’s a lot of diversity here,” Perez said. “It’s a great way to meet more people in the community.”
More than just the event, the fun activities and the dressing up, the Pride Ball is a reminder of the zest for life queer students can possess even through the hardest times. It builds the community queer folks have come to rely on to survive and thrive by having an outlet to look fabulous and enjoy their identity.
