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CVM Stands with the LGBTQ+ Vet Community for World Pride 2019

LGBTQ+ vet community day
World Pride 2019 is June 30. Photo courtesy of Pride Veterinary Medical Community

Diversity makes the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine — and the veterinary profession — stronger.

That’s why we’re proud to be a university supporter of the Pride Veterinary Medical Community organizations presence at World Pride 2019 in New York.  

On June 30, the PVMC, with 400 supporters, plan to march during the event’s parade, representing veterinary medicine’s commitment to inclusion and support of the profession’s LGBTQ+ community. June marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, a pivotal catalyst in the LGBTQ+ rights movement. The CVM encourages everyone to attend World Pride 2019 in solidarity.  

The CVM doesn’t just strive for inclusion — it is of paramount importance. Goal one of the college’s strategic plan includes building and sustaining a culture that values diversity of people and ideas.  

Fostering a spirit of unity in a sea of different types of people, backgrounds and opinions is a key motivator behind the CVM’s house system. In 2016, the CVM was the first veterinary school in the United States to implement such a system.

In 2017, CVM Dean Paul Lunn won the Broad Spectrum Veterinary Student Association LGBT+ Veterinary Awareness Award, singled out for a commitment to going “above and beyond to provide support and ensure inclusivity regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression in veterinary academia.”

The organization that would become the Pride Veterinary Medical Community was born out a small gathering in 1978 at the American Veterinary Medical Association. More than 40 years later, their vision remains vital: maintaining a veterinary profession where everyone “can live to their full potential, both personally and professionally, conduct their lives openly and with integrity, and freely share their experience and wisdom for the betterment of and care for ourselves, our profession, our clients and all animals.”

The CVM will always share that vision.