Events

Pride Happy Hour – Des Moines

Hawkeye Pride Alumni Network is excited to invite you to celebrate Pride Month with your fellow Hawkeyes! We are hosting a happy hour event at Quinton’s on June 16th and all are welcome. Enjoy 1/2 price drinks and $1 off appetizers. Come say hello to other Iowa alums and join in the rainbow fun!

RSVP online: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hawkeye-pride-happy-hour-des-moines-tickets-354121526017

Pride Happy Hour – Chicago

Hawkeye Pride Alumni Network and the Chicago Iowa Club are excited to invite you to celebrate Pride Month with your fellow Hawkeyes! Come say hello to other Iowa alums and join in the rainbow fun! All are welcome.

RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pride-happy-hour-tickets-355121677497

The Happy Hour will be hosted for University of Iowa alumni and friends at Theory in River North downtown Chicago (come check out their newly renovated second floor!). This is a free event with appetizers. Attendees will be responsible for drink purchases.

Big Ten Pride Mixer – New York City

Come join fellow B1G alumni on Monday, June 20th at Rise Bar to celebrate Pride in-person for the 1st time since the onset of the pandemic! This year’s Pride Mixer will be hosted at Rise Bar in Hell’s Kitchen (9th Ave between 55th & 56th). All Big Ten alum and friends and family (21+) are welcome to attend. Attendees will be responsible for their own tabs. 

Let’s show the NYC area B1G some Hawkeye pride! RSVP for the event here: Big Apple Big Ten Pride Mixer 2022 Tickets, Mon, Jun 20, 2022 at 6:00 PM | Eventbrite

“LGBTQ+ History at Iowa”

Presented by David McCartney and Aiden Bettine

A century ago, LGBTQ people in Iowa were classified legally as “sexual perverts,” subject to one to ten years in prison for “committing sodomy.” After decades of activism, the social and political landscape in the Hawkeye State moved toward greater freedom for Iowa’s sexual minorities with the University of Iowa often playing a leading role.  For example, Iowa was the first state university to officially recognize a queer student organization, the Gay Liberation Front (in 1970), now known as Queer Liberation Front, and was the first public university in the country to offer insurance benefits to employees’ domestic partners (in 1993). In 2009, Iowa became the first ‘heartland’ state to legally recognize marriage equality. Aiden Bettine and David McCartney recount some historical highlights of LGBTQ life in Iowa City and at the University of Iowa, sharing some of the significant ‘firsts” that transpired in our community and on our campus.