September 6, 2012
Student Body President, Manish Parikh, welcomed the LGBTQ and Ally Community to Gayz Craze 2012 and to the University of Michigan! Read Manish's welcome message below or 
watch him speak on YouTube.
Good afternoon! My dear friends of the LGBTQ and Ally community: My Fellow Wolverines. It is such an honor to welcome the members of the Class of 2016, as well as all our veteran Wolverines to this event, where we celebrate our identity, equality, and our unity. But first, Welcome to the Michigan family!
As your Student Body President, I stand here in the footsteps of a great hero, Chris Armstrong, our University’s first openly gay student body president. In standing up for himself and this Student Body, Chris transcended our campus and its student government to become a national icon and an inspiration to young people around the world. He brought dignity, courage and respect to the office that I am so privileged to occupy today!
The journey that has brought all of us here from different parts of our country and even other parts of the world hasn’t always been easy. Sometimes it’s been a long and a difficult one. Yet here we are. We’ve made it. Here, we celebrate our diversity. Here at Michigan…. we are home.
As you enter this land of Maize and Blue, you should all know that no matter where you come from, or how you look, no matter what your orientation or whom you love, we are all equal! We are all Wolverines! And we are all heroes!
Today I want to speak a little about a different kind of identity: a label which many of us are familiar with “A Michigan Wolverine”
And with nearly 200 years of rich Maize and Blue history it might be difficult to convey to you what it truly means to be a Michigan Wolverine, but I’m gonna try.
To be a Michigan Wolverine is to chant “Hail to the Victors” knowing that lifelong Wolverine, President Gerald Ford, often chose to play our fight song as opposed to
the traditional “Hail to the Chief” before important State events. Such is the timeless power of this fight song that President Ford even chose to play our song at his funeral. It is to take pride in of our own Michael Phelps becoming the greatest Olympian of all time, with 18 Gold Medals all while sporting the most regal tattoo ever to grace an Olympic pool: “The Michigan M”
To be a Michigan Wolverine is to commend the work of a legendary man, who went to our University, and later used this education to transform our University and Ann Arbor forever. James Toy founded the Ann Arbor Gay Liberation Front. In 1971 he helped establish the Human Sexuality Office here at Michigan to respond to sexual orientation concerns, the first office of its kind anywhere in the world. Today this institution is known as the Spectrum Center.
To be a Michigan Wolverine is also take pride in Holly Hughes an American lesbian painter and playwright who has received 7 grants from the National Endowment of the Arts, an Obie award, and a Lambda Book Award for her brilliant work. Today she teaches fine arts, right here, at our University of Michigan!
And friends to be a Michigan Wolverine is also to take pride in the fact that many of the greatest innovations in computer science and electrical engineering emanated from Lynn Conway: An associate dean of engineering at this University. Lynn Conway is a prominent member of the transgender community, and has been an anchor of support to transgender individuals here in Ann Arbor, and across the world!
A few days ago as I was writing this speech, someone asked me “Are you an Ally.”
Friends, I want all of you to know that your outstanding Vice President Omar Hashwi is your ally, your Central Student Government will always remain your ally, this University is YOUR ally, and of course I am your ally. And while I am only President of this Student Body, the President of our University Dr. Coleman has also strived to make this University more diverse and more inclusive by supporting the LGBTQ community!
My hope for you, today, my fellow Wolverines, is not just that you someday follow in the footsteps of great Michigan alumni including Larry Page or the cultural icon Madonna, or even Chris Armstrong. My hope for you is not just that you go out and change this world! Because all this I already know will come true.
No, my hope for you, is that you truly immerse yourself in the Michigan Way, that you Expect Respect here at Michigan, give it and get it, that you embrace diversity and equality here in Ann Arbor, and that you always remain proud of your identity in the face of any adversity.
And while the theme of today’s event is “We are all Heroes”, today, “You are my heroes”. For being proud of your identity, for coming out here in the open, and for supporting those in the LGBT community, you are all my heroes.
And so let’s stand side by side, let’s remain united, let’s become allies and support the LGBT community, let’s always remain proud of our identity, and let’s work together my friends to ensure that it feels greater than ever to be a Michigan Wolverine!
Thank you and as always, Go Blue!