In 2016, UM student Matt Kessler came to members of the Sarah Isom Center with a dream of organizing a Pride parade in Oxford, Mississippi. As we do when students come to us with ideas, we collaborated with him to organize the parade.

Since 2016, many community partners have created events during Oxford Pride Week, including churches, nonprofit organizations, and local businesses. Every event at Oxford Pride is open to all members of the community; the parade has always included those who do not identify as queer but love those who do.

Oxford Pride does not promote any particular ideology. It acknowledges a simple fact: queer Mississippians are tax-paying citizens of this state, and like all citizens, queer Mississippians have the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  As citizens, queer Mississippians enjoy the right of free assembly and expression. Queer Mississippians are our neighbors, our students, our brothers and sisters, our aunts and uncles, our cousins, and our children, and during this week, we acknowledge and show our appreciation for the many ways queer Mississippians make our state a better place.

The Isom Center lives within one of Mississippi’s public universities, and that means we serve the people of Mississippi–all the people of Mississippi. We welcome all our fellow Mississippians to Oxford Pride, and we are grateful that all of us, with our many beliefs and value systems, have the right to exist as we are and allow others to exist as they are.