The second annual Norse Pride Week began this week presented by the LGBTQ office. The main focus of Norse Pride week is awareness and understanding.

“We look to do a concentrated week of programming to promote visibility, to promote community, to promote togetherness,” Director of LGBTQ Programs and Services, Bonnie Meyer said. “To help people understand there are LGBTQ people and also to help those individuals feel included.”

The week kicked off Monday with poster making for the pride march and dodgeball at night in the Campus Recreation Center. The dodgeball game was hosted by Colors of Pride and Common Ground.

“The whole week is very family friendly and community oriented,” junior integrative studies major and LGBTQ student programming and research assistant Morgan Bell said. “It’s just how we work in the office.”

Tuesday will be the pride march followed by a spoken word and open mic night. Students from NKU, community members and University of Cincinnati students will be attending.

“The first hour or so is student performers, community performers,” Bell said.

The open mic night will include spoken word artists, Sister Outsider. They are a slam poet duo from Brooklyn, New York. Bell discovered them on Youtube.

“They won awards and everything,” Bell said.

On Wednesday, there will be a Bible talk with Dr. Debra Meyers called “What the Bible Really Says About LGBTQ Issues.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s about the basic what the Bible says and then how people interpret it,” Bell said. “This is how we get past this and this is how we interpret it.”

Wednesday night will end with an ambassador showcase where students will display their projects that they have been working on all semester.

“Pride is still important because even though there’s been a lot of progress made… but there’s still a lot of progress we need to see happen,” Meyer said.

Chris Hartman, the executive director of the Fairness Campaign, will be coming Thursday to discuss the state of fairness in Kentucky.

“It’s still legal [in Kentucky] to fire a person based on sexual orientation and gender identity still. For reasons like that it gives us the opportunity to talk about these issues, to bring awareness that not everybody is heterosexual… it’s really important to bring together the community, to show there are so many allies,” Meyer said.

The discussion will focus around the importance of gaining more fairness ordinances in the Northern Kentucky area.

“There’s no statewide ordinance protecting folks’ jobs, housing, accommodations… but there are city ordinances,” Meyer said. “The Fairness Campaign has been very important in getting city ordinances passed. Covington is the only city in Northern Kentucky that has a fairness ordinance.”

According to Bell, the work put into planning these events and getting the word out about LGBTQ experiences is important.

“It’s all about a learning experience too, like event planning. The whole office each year we build something different and then there’s also a lot more to come out of it like other individuals more aware of what we do… how we relate it to the community and how we get the community involved. I just think everyone should know,” Bell said.

Meyer wants to continue with pride week in the future.

“We want to continue with pride week, we think it’s important,” Meyer said. “We always align it with the Common Ground spring drag show.”

Common Ground’s drag show will conclude the week with a masquerade theme. Tickets are five dollars at the door and three dollars in advance.