The newly founded chapter of the international online magazine Her Campus, HC Manipal organised a pride event on campus on 8th February in front of Food Court 1. As it was one of their first events, the organisers were not acquainted with all the permits required. Due to this, the event began slightly late but ran quite smoothly throughout the duration. In the end, co-Presidents Bhavya Gopal and Gauri Gupta were extremely satisfied with the outcome of the event.

The event started with a speaker from the board of HC Manipal, Nandini Proothi, who identified as a part of the LGBTQ+ community. She shared her story of coming out and accepting who she was and recited a heart-wrenching poem revolving around the word ‘queer’.  The next speaker, Chintan Rout, identified as bisexual and spoke about the realisation of his sexuality. “We are taught from childhood that love is blind but when this is seen in action when someone’s seen happy with someone they love, the world always has something to say about it. Is this judgement profound enough to tailor our definition of what love is?”, said Chintan in his heartfelt speech.

The talks were followed by a series of songs with another speaker Shreya who also belongs to the LGBTQ+ community. She spoke about gender roles, expression, and individuality and highlighted the importance of individual expression. Songs and performances conducted for the audience, sprawled out on the lawn in front of Food Court 1, bringing the event to a harmonious end.