It’s LGBT Pride Week on Binghamton University’s campus.

A number of student groups and administrative offices are joining together to run a number of events on campus throughout the week. Pride Week, an October tradition for the past two years at BU, will center around activities and programs that advocate for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Jen Hapgood, business manager and assessment specialist for Residential Life, said that the Pride Week Committee, which is made up of representatives from ResLife, the Career Development Center, the Division of Student Affairs, Safe Zone and the Eating Awareness Committee, began planning this year’s Pride Week in February.

Pride Week kicked off yesterday afternoon with the Loud and Proud March, which began at 4 p.m. in the Dickinson Amphitheater. About 15 students marched down the Lois B. DeFleur Walkway and looped around the Brain, carrying signs and chanting slogans about equality for the LGBT community.

Aviva Friedman, a sophomore majoring in environmental studies, said she felt that bystanders’ reaction to the march was largely positive.

“There was a kid looking with his jaw dropped and a big smile on his face,” Friedman said.

Friedman carried a sign during the march that read, “Stand up for equality and join us on The Right Side of History,” referencing the pro-gay rights student group.

The march was followed by a talk in the University Union with Lawrence Parham, the assistant director for prevention services for the Southern Tier AIDS Program, who discussed the need for allies of the LGBT community to be active in their support.

“Being an ally should be a verb,” Parham said. “We make gay-straight alliances in high schools an afterthought, and we have to fight to get them in there.”

Other events celebrating Pride Week are planned for the rest of the week.

The Rainbow Pride Union (RPU) will hold a National Coming Out Day Carnival from 2 to 4 p.m. today in Old Union Hall, followed by an RPU chapter meeting at 7 p.m. in New University Union room 302.

The Career Development Center will hold a program about job search issues for students who are LGBT at 5 p.m. on Thursday in Old University Union room 111. Following the program, the Eating Awareness Committee will host a showing of the film “Do I Look Fat?” at 7 p.m. in the same room.

The Pride Week Committee will host a “brown bag” lunchtime talk about the state of the LGBT community at noon Friday in the Chenango Champlain Collegiate Center room 114F. The Committee will also host Safe Zone Training — a workshop to train people to provide support for LGBT individuals — from 2 to 5 p.m. in the same room.

On Saturday, The Right Side of History will be performing a series of “coming-out skits” at 11:30 p.m. in the Undergrounds in the Old University Union basement.

Frank Torres, a senior double-majoring in financial economics and political science and the director of RPU, said he hopes that Pride Week will make LGBT students feel more comfortable about revealing their sexuality.

“If people see that there is so much support around them, then it becomes easier for someone to be themselves,” Torres said. “Pride Week is to try and show people that the Binghamton campus is an exceptionally LGBT-friendly campus.”

Hapgood hopes the week’s events raise awareness and prompt students on campus to talk about LGBT issues.

“There’s a lot out there,” Hapgood said. “I think the reactions [to the events] are pretty good.”