Expanding the Pathway of Belonging
The parallels between Pride Month 2026, celebrating ‘over half a century of progress and visibility’ throughout the month of June, and The PRIDE Center at QCC, marking an extremely successful year of growth and community — are numerous.
For both, there is shared history, achievement, an ongoing mission for equality, equity and inclusion, and enduring empowerment as demonstrated through acceptance, awareness, joy, and resilience.
The PRIDE Center’s own history began in October 2024 when Lamar Greene (They|Them|Theirs), was hired as Queensborough’s PRIDE Center Coordinator.
They explained that leading up to the official opening in March 2025, it was ‘all hands-on deck to get more students in the space’. “I spread the word to student clubs such as the Ally LGBTQ Club and the Caribbean Student Coalition. We had a small core group at first but over time that group has blossomed in a way I could never have anticipated and has continued to grow dramatically in number every semester.”
Lamar, whose background is in public health, advanced their career on the West Coast where they worked at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. There they developed expertise in advocacy for LGBTQ+sexual/reproductive health. Lamar also built their professional experience working on global HIV campaigns, and as an advocate at other local health departments. Eventually they moved back East to be closer to family where they learned of the new position at Queensborough from a friend, applied and was subsequently hired.
“My intention was to create a multi-functional space where students and the entire college community would feel welcome and engaged.”
That means snacks, music, movie screenings, board games, and studying resources like laptops and Whiteboards. And Legos. “Legos are so popular! We also did lots of tabling at events like the Club Fair and Health and Wellness Fair.”
Additionally, Lamar created a student development pipeline with consortium grant funds from City Council, housed and distributed through the Institute for LGBTQIA+ Community Engagement and Public History at LaguardiaCommunity College. The consortium grant funds are distributed to various CUNY colleges for programming and community building initiatives.
Last year was Lamar’s first year leading the consortium grant on behalf of The PRIDE Center, which now houses the grant. “I created a development pipeline for students to be able to pitch their own ideas. A sort of micro-grant model for funding that I co-manage for projects. One student based her entire marketing portfolio around the work she did for PRIDE Center events.”
Among the exciting developments at The PRIDE Center is the addition of interns. “We had interns for the first time this past academic year. A social work intern from Hunter College, a Tech Fee Intern and three communications and operations support interns. We will continue to grow, to expand the pathway of belonging.”
Learning life skills is an important piece of the picture.
A series of self-defense, martial arts classes for queer and trans students were led by a certified instructor. “The students loved it. Never was there a week where the gym was empty, or we weren’t having fun.”
And lots of popular pop-up art events. Origami, collage, coloring. “Zen moments in-between exams,” they added.
Of course, commencement was special, if somewhat bittersweet. “One graduating student, the student who based her marketing portfolio around the work she did for PRIDE Center events, has been with me since before we had anything hanging on the walls! Now she is moving on to Baruch to continue her studies in business and marketing. I am so proud of her. I am so proud of all our students.”
Sunday, June 7, is the Queens Pride Parade in Jackson Heights. “This is my favorite Pride parade, more intimate in scale and lots of activities to enjoy after it’s over. A wonderful day to come together and be Proud, show our Pride and embrace the infinite possibilities.”
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