Rice University expert available to comment on Pride Parade and Festival

Jeff Falk
713-348-6327
jfalk@rice.edu  

Rice University expert available to comment on Pride Parade and Festival
Riedel: Pride a time to celebrate, commemorate and become educated  

HOUSTON – (June 22, 2012) – In celebration of LGBT Pride Month, Houston will host its annual Pride Parade and Festival Saturday to recognize the impact of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. Brian Scott Riedel, assistant director of Rice’s Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality (CSWGS), can comment on the historical and current significance of this event, which is celebrated by major cities across the country.

“For much of the last year, LGBT communities have been caught up in seemingly endless national conversations about same-sex marriage, the ability to serve in the military, adoption rights, employment nondiscrimination and access to affirming health care, among other issues,” Riedel said. “The Pride Parade and Festival offer a welcome break and a time for us all to celebrate, commemorate and become educated about these communities that so many have worked so long to make possible.”

Rice students, staff and alumni rode aboard the university’s entry in the 2010 LGBT Pride Parade.

At the Pride Festival, which precedes the nighttime parade, Riedel will attend the LGBT History Exhibit developed by the Houston Area Rainbow Collective History, of which Rice’s CSWGS is a founding member. A Rice University float with students, faculty and staff in the parade will feature a poster of Houston Mayor and Rice alumna Annise Parker under the heading “Today’s students, tomorrow’s leaders.”

In addition to his involvement with CSWGS, Riedel teaches Introduction to LGBT Studies at Rice. He holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from Rice and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Riedel’s research interests include international activism and the preservation of Houston’s LGBT history.

To schedule an interview with Riedel, contact Jeff Falk, associate director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu, 713-348-6775. 

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Related materials:

Rice University Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality: http://swg.rice.edu

Rice Pride: http://staff.rice.edu/pride_parade.asp

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is known for its “unconventional wisdom.” With 3,708 undergraduates and 2,374 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice has been ranked No. 1 for best quality of life multiple times by the Princeton Review and No. 4 for “best value” among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. To read “What they’re saying about Rice,” go to www.rice.edu/nationalmedia/Rice.pdf.