Vargas is expected to discuss his identity as a journalist, an openly gay man, a person of color and an undocumented immigrant. His talk begins at 7 p.m. in the Swain Student Activities Center (SAC), Belknap Campus. The lecture is open to the public and free for students with identification. Sponsors will accept donations at the event to offset its costs.
Vargas wrote a 2011 article for The New York Times Magazine that revealed his status as an undocumented immigrant. He was also featured in a TIME cover story about immigration rights. The founder of DefineAmerican.com, Vargas has been a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post and Huffington Post among other media outlets. He received a 2008 Pulitzer Prize for news articles about the Virginia Tech shootings.
Another public Pride Week 2012 event is the Oct. 4, 7 p.m., screening of the film “Brother Outsider, The Life of Bayard Rustin.” The film is about the life and work of Rustin, who is best known as an adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. and organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. Rustin, who died in 1987, was a human rights activist and openly gay at a time in U.S. history when there was little public acceptance of homosexuality. The film will show in the Multipurpose Room of the SAC.
The screening will also include a presentation by Mandy Carter, national coordinator, Bayard Rustin Commemoration 2012–2013 Project, National Black Justice Coalition, and Walter Naegle, Rustin’s surviving partner.
The Office for LGBT Services and the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky sponsor the Vargas visit. The Student Activities Board sponsors the film screening and the Carter and Naegle visits.