UW Oshkosh held its 10th Annual LGBTQ+ Ally March Wednesday in the Reeve Union Ballroom.

This year marks the addition of the “+” to the end of the title as well as the highest number of sponsors for the event with 52, according to LGBTQ Resource Center director Liz Cannon.
To sponsor the March, an organization must donate $40 to the LGBTQ Resource Center, which allows the group to display their name on the back of the LGBTQ+ Ally March T-shirt and provides the opportunity to promote themselves at the Resource Fair taking place before the Ally March. This year, 32 of the 52 sponsors had tables at the fair.

UWO is the only institution known to have an LGBTQ+ Ally March, an event that incorporates supporters of the community and the community members themselves, according to Cannon.

“I think one of the major purposes, simply besides celebrating the community, is to really get people to understand that the word ‘ally’ isn’t a noun; it’s not an identity you get to claim for yourself,” Cannon said. “Others may call you an ally, but it’s actually a verb, and what counts is the actions all of us are doing in order to work with this particular community, or with any community you decide to ally with.”

The March started at 5:30 p.m. and participants marched from the Reeve Union Ballroom to High Street, onward through downtown Oshkosh with a police escort.

In preparation for the march, the campus LGBTQ+ Ally March committee met monthly, starting in September to set up sponsors, submit a city application to gain a permit for the March and more.
For the past four years, the March has featured a Penny War fundraising competition, resulting in up to $700 in funds raised. This year the competition had the most participants, according to Cannon.

Cannon said she invites people to be allies to the community and has advice for people looking to get involved.

“When it comes to what a person who wants to ally with this community should know, one of the first things is; ‘Yes, there are a lot of words that we use, and yes, it is unbelievably important to learn how to use pronouns but in a lot of ways actions do speak louder than words,’” Cannon said. “So if someone is concretely doing things to support the community, maybe messes up a pronoun, maybe gets the wrong terminology, the action is going to speak louder than the words in that case.”

Each year about 150 people participate in the March, according to Cannon.

Chancellor Andrew Leavitt said the March is a big part of UWO’s culture and tradition, pushing for full support of the LGBTQ+ community worldwide.

“The LGBTQ Ally March continues to serve as one of the University’s most visible and powerful examples of our oneness in working toward a goal of greater inclusivity,” Leavitt said.