Pride Month is celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, a turning point in the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. Pride Month recognizes and celebrates the impact that LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual or allies, and others) individuals have had through history. It also serves as an opportunity to lift the voices, recognize the culture, and support the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community.

In honor of Pride Month 2025, the UC Santa Barbara College of Engineering (COE) is recognizing and celebrating two LGBTQIA+ graduate students who represent the next generation of innovators and leaders in engineering and STEM fields. Celeste Natera spoke to them earlier this month about what Pride Month means to them and why they believe it is important to share their stories.

Sam Rosen
Sam Rosen, a gay fifth-year student in the Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Quantitative Biosciences (IPQB) came to UCSB after earning his bachelor’s degree in physics, with a minor in computer science, at Boston University. Advised by Max Wilson, an associate professor in the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Department, Rosen focuses his work on Wnt signaling dynamics — a conserved molecular pathway essential for development, cell growth, and tissue homeostasis in many animal species — as they relate to mammalian cells. He uses that knowledge to develop better regenerative medicine techniques and therapies to heal tissues and organs and restore function lost due to aging, disease, damage, or defects. After completing his PhD, Rosen hopes to remain at UCSB to continue his work in the NSF ExFAB BioFoundry.

COE: What does Pride Month mean to you as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, and does it feel more important to observe and recognize it given the anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation that has been introduced across the nation lately?
SR: Pride month to me is all about celebrating queerness and really loving every aspect of your queer identity. I find that, for queer people moving through a very heteronormative world, it can sometimes be hard to feel prideful, but what I love about pride is that it's about coming together and embracing yourself. Such a beautiful part of being queer is that we all come from so many different backgrounds, all different shapes, colors, ages, et cetera. There aren’t many types of communities that have that, where it really is like a melting pot. We're all together in this queer experience. Of course, I think more than ever, pride is important to observe and to celebrate during any time of political hardship for the queer community. It's important to still celebrate that queer joy and keep fighting. The attacks on the queer community are pretty brutal on a federal scale and even locally in Morro Bay, where they've banned the flying of the pride flag. It's disheartening to see these attacks, but through community, we will fight back. We will rise together and we will celebrate together.

COE: What would you like people to gain from reading your profile and the others on the page?
SR: I want people to know that queer folk are everywhere. It’s really inspiring to see us in STEM, because it's a place where we're typically under-represented and where heteronormativity is sort of the norm, even in terms of how you express yourself. Being in a lab environment can feel isolating, but it helps just knowing that there are other queer STEM students on campus, that you're not alone in this, and that it's really awesome that you are a queer person person in STEM, that your identity doesn't limit you from doing anything and also connects you to this amazing community of people.

COE: Have you found UCSB, the College of Engineering, and your department communities to be welcoming to you and other members of the LGBTQIA+ community?
SR: I've found UCSB to be quite accepting. Being accepting of others in California and at UCSB is a pretty easy thing to do. If anything, I've experienced more of that sense of “othering.” Despite the fact that we're all scientists, the way that some of us queer folk live our lives or express ourselves is very different from the norm in a STEM environment, which can feel quite isolating. Thanks to the queer folk I have met, it's been really amazing to have my own little queer community here.

COE: How have you been able to find your queer community on campus?
SR: A big part of finding my queer community has been through drag. I’m the founder and one of the co-heads of the Drag Club here at UCSB. My drag mother, otherwise known as Jon Bingaman, a PhD student in the Chemical Engineering Department, is a huge reason I've been able to find community. Drag has brought me closer to other queer folk who share views, values, and modes of self-expression that are similar to mine. It has even connected me to queer folk in the greater Santa Barbara area. For me, drag is connection. It's the ability to bridge the gap between so many different groups of people and for us to all share one beautiful collective experience.

COE: What could the college or university do to provide a more welcoming environment?
SR: One thing that I'd like to see are campus lectures by queer researchers. Seeing other queer folk who are in later stages of their careers give talks on campus would be incredibly inspiring. I haven't seen or known any queer folk in STEM fields who have come to give presentations. I think that's a very doable thing that would appeal to everybody. Representation does matter. To see somebody who works at an R1 university who is openly queer and is working in your field is a massive source of inspiration to know that you can do this. Of course, we have no trouble being pioneers ourselves, but if there are pioneers who are already here, queer folk in STEM who have made it very far in their careers, it's just nice to know that they’re out there.

COE: How are you celebrating pride month this year?
SR: This year for Pride, I'm planning on hosting some drag shows. If you want to see some beautiful drag queens perform, come to EOS, June 13th at , 10:30 p.m., as we will be doing our Friday the 13th spooky Gay Night Barbara. Besides that, just spending more time with queer friends and having fun. Pride really is the time to be corny. When I first came out, I thought, I love rainbow. I love this. And then for a while I thought, Oh, I hate being queer. Now I think, Yeah, I want the corny rainbow stuff. Give me the corny rainbow pin. Give me the corny rainbow bracelet. Don't be afraid of being corny during pride. I'm just excited. I love Pride Month.

Arturo Juan
A gay third-year materials PhD student at UCSB, Arturo Juan earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Southern California, and then a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering at UCSB. He worked in industry prior to entering the Materials PhD program in fall 2022. Juan is advised by Steven DenBaars, a distinguished professor of materials and electrical and computer engineering. Juan’s research focuses on high power and energy efficient edge emitting laser diodes on III-Nitrides. He says that after completing his PhD, he hopes to return to industry to continue working on epitaxy and thin film growth of materials.

COE: What does Pride Month mean to you as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, and does it feel more important to observe and recognize it given the anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation that has been introduced across the nation lately?
AJ: Pride Month is about being yourself and being unafraid of who you are. With the initiatives by the current administration aimed at suppressing the voices of marginalized groups, that can sometimes be hard. We need a strong community of allies to be there for us and speak up for us because we, the members of the LGBTQIA+ community, can't do it alone.

COE: Why did you agree to share your story and participate in this project that celebrates Pride Month within the College of Engineering?
AJ: I think it's important to hear stories from students or people like myself and learn about struggles that others might not know we face. Having someone's story, not to make it too scientific, but as a data point to realize that you can't generalize about a group of people, whether it’s women, LGBTQIA+ members, or an ethnic group, is important. We always like to glorify a happy ending, but sometimes I think it's just as important to learn about people's backgrounds.

COE: What would you like people to gain from reading your profile and the others on the page?
AJ: Since the fourth grade, I knew I wanted to be a scientist. I’m from two communities that are marginalized and minorities within engineering — being both Hispanic/Latino and queer — so I want to share my story with those who maybe don’t think that they can do it. Having someone that they can see has been through similar experiences can be a representation that they can do it, too. I also want people to just be kind to each other. It's so simple, but sometimes we forget just to be kind to others.

COE: Have you found UCSB, the College of Engineering, and your department communities to be welcoming to you and other members of the LGBTQIA+ community?
AJ: Not to say that it’s all sunshines and rainbows, but, for the most part, I think the community here, at least at UCSB, within the Materials Department and within the College of Engineering, is accepting. You can just be who you are, and I feel like I've been able to express myself. I have lots of supportive friends, and there are lots of great on-campus orgs, like oSTEM and RCSGD, to get involved in. No one ever looks at me funny for being myself, and I think that that, in and of itself, can be big. Sometimes people are afraid of expressing themselves, but fortunately, not just within the College of Engineering but even more specifically with the people that I work with every day, I am unafraid of being myself.

COE: What could the college or university do to provide a more welcoming environment?
AJ: There's always more that can be done. I think there needs to be more support for the student organizations. There needs to be financial support for orgs and their members to keep them running, to send them to conferences, and to let them have space for their community. The College of Engineering has been supportive of the graduate student orgs that I'm a part of. We're able to reserve rooms and spaces after hours for panels that we want to host, but there needs to be a continuation of support for the students. I think it requires staff from the College of Engineering, but also the university, to talk to the student orgs and talk to the leaders and ask, “What are your needs and how can we help?”

COE: How are you celebrating pride month this year?
AJ: I celebrate Pride Month every day. To me, it isn't just about a month. Having the freedom and ability to be myself every day is pride. While it’s great that we have a month for it, I think it's something that needs to be acknowledged every day. It's fun to celebrate, and all the festivals that happen throughout the country are totally great and should continue to happen, but I think it should go beyond just the month of June. I’m going to continue doing the work that I do. Telling people why I love what I do, why I love science, and being unapologetically me. If there is even just one queer or Hispanic kid that doesn’t feel seen in the STEM field, they can see themselves in me.