United Student Pride, a student group at Fresno State, is hosting guest speaker Peter Robertson on Wed. March 23rd in USU 310 at 6:00 p.m. Admission is free.
Robertson’s topic is “GLSA + USP: The first five years (1987-1992),” which will include personal recounts of the struggles faced by the Gay Lesbian Student Alliance (today known as United Student Pride or USP) and the club’s journey to overcome arson and total destruction of its booth, personal and public homophobic and heterosexist attacks, appearances on the campus by the Ku Klux Klan, and fallout from within from some of its very own members.
Included in his presentation will be historic clippings and photos that appeared in both “The Daily Collegian” and “The Fresno Bee,” as well as recounting successes such as re-building a new booth, hosting a conference on campus that included guest speaker Cleve Jones, presenting two drag shows featuring the Fresno City Bulldrags and members of the Imperial Dove Court de Fresno, and launching the inaugural Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (today known as Fresno Reel Pride).
In addition to being a founding member of GLSA (USP) in 1987, Robertson and Ken Fries co-founded Fresno Reel Pride in 1990. He was honored as being named a grand marshal in Fresno’s first Pride Parade in 1991.
A three-time graduate of Fresno State with a BA, MA and MBA, Robertson also founded the Bulldog Pride Fund (BPF) in 2005, an endowment that supports student scholarship at Fresno State. Since its inception, the BPF has awarded 14 scholarships totaling $21,000.
