Around New England

URI Hosts Prom for LGBT+ High School Students

May 25, 2019

The Gender and Sexuality Center at the University of Rhode Island hosted a Mermaid Prom for about a dozen other-than-heterosexual high school students earlier this week.

One of the students who attended the event on the South Kingston campus is a 17-year-old boy who identifies himself as “pan-sexual,” according to the Providence Journal.

The organizer, a woman in her 20s who identifies as queer, said it’s hard for homosexual teen-agers to meet other sympatico people in Rhode Island’s sparsely populated Washington County, which is known as South County because it covers much of the southern portion of the state.

“Especially in a place like South County, it’s important to be an active ally. If you come here, you are going to end up dancing with them,” she said, according to the Providence Journal.