The UMKC Pride Breakfast returned on March 21 with more than 600 allies gathering to show support for the university’s LGBTQIA students. The featured speaker was Sarah McBride, national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, one of America’s most public voices in the fight for LGBT equality. McBride was the first transgender woman to address a national political party convention.
This year’s breakfast raised $202,195 for LGBTQIA programs and scholarships at UMKC. Student speaker Trae Tucker noted that support and events at a local level can make a difference on a much larger scale. “Starting with a drop of water to reprove inequalities and exclusivity in our communities eventually creates big waves that spread across our country for a more equal and loving life for all,” he said.
How UMKC Pride Breakfast Makes a Difference for Students
Featured Speaker: Sarah McBride
“We have transformed impossibility into possibility into reality.”
Sarah McBride is a progressive activist and currently the National Press Secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization.
McBride first made national headlines when, at the end of her term as student body president at American University, she came out publicly as transgender in the student newspaper. She went on to intern in the Obama White House, the first openly trans woman to do so, and, after graduating from college, helped lead the successful effort to pass gender identity nondiscrimination protections in Delaware.
It was during her time at the White House that McBride met Andrew Cray, a transgender man and fellow advocate. The two fell in love and began working together in the fight for LGBTQ equality. Cray was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2014, and just days after they married, he tragically passed away. Cray’s passing instilled in McBride a firm belief in the urgency of political and social change.
Now as a spokesperson for the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, McBride has become one of America’s most public voices in the fight for LGBTQ equality, culminating in her address before the nation during the 2016 presidential election. Her moving new book Tomorrow Will Be Different chronicles her journey as a transgender woman, from coming out to her family and school community, to fighting for equality in her home state and nationally, to her heartbreaking romance with her late husband. From Delaware to North Carolina to Texas, McBride is working to resist the politics of hate and to move equality forward.
“Sharing your story is one of the most significant and transformative things you can do to make a difference in the LGBT community.”
About the UMKC Pride Breakfast
Since 2008, the UMKC Pride Breakfast has raised funds to support LGBTQIA students at UMKC and served as a way to show our university’s commitment to creating and inclusive and welcoming environment on campus. The Pride Breakfast benefits programs and scholarships established specifically for LGBTQIA students, including the Pride Empowerment Fund, which provides emergency assistance to those who are experiencing financial difficulty due to loss of family support.