QuASA to host Pride Project


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USC’s Queer and Ally Student Assembly next week will use art to provide an outlet for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth and to educate the public about bullying, depression and other challenges LGBT youth face.

The event, called Pride Project @ USC, is open to the public and will take place in the Ronald Tutor Campus Center Forum from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday Jan. 18. The evening will consist of a silent auction of art made by LGBT youth from around the country.

Vincent Vigil, director of the LGBT Resource Center, said one of the evening’s primary goals is to provide creative alternatives to hatred and other negativity, in light of last fall’s highly publicized LGBT youth suicides.

“It offers an alternative for those youth to put their anger or frustration or anxiety about being LGBT by focusing that energy into art … whether that be graphic art or actual paintings or poetry,” Vigil said.

Proceeds from the auction will go to a fund to help incorporate Pride Project, which seeks to put Gay-Straight Alliance groups in middle and high schools and promote art as self-expression within those groups.

Kylie Johns and Ayden Mace, the organization’s founders, will speak Tuesday evening.

Victoria Quintanar, a junior majoring in theatre and vice president of community outreach for Rainbow Scholars, said she is hoping for about 100 people will  attend.

“Art is a universal language, and a lot of college students can relate to that,” she said. “If they show up and are there to bid on the art, that is how it comes full circle.”