LGBTQ+ Tour

This tour is meant to show the progression of the development of the LGBTQ rights over the passage of time. Our tour will mainly be centered around the UT campus since many of the firsts happened there. We will be discussing the different types of activism throughout time that have helped promote LGBTQ rights and acceptance. This tour will begin with Parlin Hall, which was where the first LGBT Alliance in Texas was founded and it will end with the site of a late night rally where a group of queer individuals were brutally attacked downtown. This will be our grand finale, as to show that even though we have progressed so much as a society, we still have a ways to go to achieve full acceptance and appreciation of the LGBTQ community in Austin.

Though we have seen an amazing improvement in the way members of the LGBTQ community are treated within society and under the law, we still see discrimination against them. Whether it is violence or deliberate exclusion, there is still discrimination and discriminatory acts being directed at the LGBTQ community. There is still a long way to go to achieving complete LGBTQ equality and, ultimately, that is what our tour is trying to show. We also want to show the importance of activism, especially student activism, in support of this community and the immense influence that this activism has had in making changes to how the LGBTQ community is treated. Through this activism, there have been legislative changes and improvements in the everyday lives of members of the LGBTQ community. We want to show that this is a process that is still very much in progress. Though there have been changes, the LGBTQ community is still a more marginalized group that faces discrimination every day.