Kennesaw Pride Alliance to form nonprofit following DEI cuts

Following the closure of Kennesaw State University’s LGBTQ+ Resource Center, the student organization Kennesaw Pride Alliance is forming a nonprofit to maintain its support of LGBTQ+ students and expand its reach to other universities in Georgia.

For over a decade, the LGBTQ+ Resource Center offered an inclusive space to socialize, engage in weekly and monthly programming, and “shop” for free from the Clothing Closet, a more comfortable and accessible space for transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming students to find clothes that suit them. In spring, however, the university internally announced the center would be rebranded as part of a new Department of Student Engagement and Support and no longer specifically serve LGBTQ+ students.

The dismantling followed a letter issued in February detailing the Trump Department of Education’s new civil rights guidance targeting DEI practices, along with the introduction of legislation like SB120, a bill that would’ve banned diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from K-12 schools and colleges had it not died after crossover day.

In the wake of these attacks, colleges across Georgia have rolled back LGBTQ+-inclusive resources; Georgia Tech dissolved its LGBTQ+ Resource Center, Women’s Resource Center, and Black Culture, Innovation, and Technology team and coalesced them into the Arts, Belonging, and Community Department. Emory University announced in September it would be discontinuing DEI programs and offices.

Amy West, Communications Director of the Kennesaw Pride Alliance, said that students were frustrated and hurt by the closure, so the KPA stepped up to create its own space for LGBTQ+ students to gather.

“Several other universities in Georgia are still operating similar programs or rebranded them, whereas KSU just completely gutted theirs,” West told Georgia Voice. “So that ended up with myself and… several other members of the community to end up bringing KPA out of dormancy.”

Partnering with local First United Lutheran Church, KPA opened its own Pride Center Aug. 22, a space located in the church for students to engage with community support groups, movie nights, game nights, a queer library, a community closet, and mental health counseling – all built entirely by students without support from the university.

“I know right now a lot of our students are facing sustained pressure at home and on campus, be it from certain right-wing groups or from increasingly emboldened conservatives who are trying to silence them and keep them in the closet,” West said. “That’s why having access to these supports to enable them to exist as themselves in public is so key. Considering the fact that support was almost entirely gutted last spring, a lot of them have been left feeling hopeless, like they need to hide themselves to not be harassed or targeted.” 

Along with the creation of the new Pride Center and community engagement, members of KPA are also advocating for students, in particular those living in the now-disbanded Stonewall Housing. The housing program, which provided safe housing to LGBTQ+ students who came from hostile homes, feared harassment in the dorms, or were homeless or on the verge of homelessness, was discontinued along with the resource center. One student on the KSU subreddit wrote that the KSU housing website had been wiped of any mention of the program, and that Stonewall residents had not been told the program had been disbanded.

West says KPA has and will continue to advocate for the reinstatement of the program. In the meantime, the KSU senior and her colleagues in the organization are working to maintain the organization to help provide and advocate for LGBTQ+ students even after the current leadership graduates. The student organization is currently filing for 501(c)(3) status to create Georgia Pride Alliance, a parent organization for the group that would formalize the structure of KPA and potentially expand its reach to students at other schools. West says she hopes for the nonprofit to be formed by spring or summer 2026.

Until then, students with KPA are seeking volunteers to help run events at the Pride Center, donations of books and clothes to their library and closet, and connections with other organizations to get students access to other resources KPA doesn’t have the capacity to provide. To learn more and get involved, follow Kennesaw Pride Alliance on Instagram @kpridealliance.

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