Student Government Association (SGA) partnered with the Lion’s Pause from Nov. 13 to 19 to raise money for the Transgender Law Center in honor of Transgender Awareness Week.
The fundraiser came from a larger transgender proposal package introduced by Junior Class Representative Declan Mears ’27, who was the Gender and Sexuality Senator at the time of the introduction. The package would have reaffirmed SGA’s support for transgender rights in a published statement and taken direct action in response to the Trump administration’s executive orders that restrict transgender rights and recognition nationwide.
“Actionable items are a great way to help give people hope,” Gender and Sexuality Senator Spirit Sukut ’28 said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger. “With the fundraiser, it’s going directly to a cause that will help trans people, and it’s a trans-led cause that is going back to the trans community.”
After reviewing the transgender proposal package again, Sukut and Mears joined forces to find a way to streamline the process in order to have the fundraiser before the end of the semester. To do this, they headed to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Board in order to get approval by Secretary of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Kaya Clemons ’26 rather than attempting a majority vote in the Senate — a process that would have taken around two weeks.
As for their fundraising partner, the Lion’s Pause was an obvious choice.
“The Pause is a student organization, so we obviously love supporting them,” Mears said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger. “Collaborating with them is just something SGA has done in the past, so the groundwork was already laid down for us to do it.”
During the fundraiser, $2 from any ice cream or cookie purchase was donated to the Transgender Law Center, which led to a final total of $938 by the end of the fundraiser.
