Photo credit: Hector Ruiz
Pride Month is here, and South Texas Equality Project (STEP) knows it! With over 55 Pride events happening across the RGV this June, STEP, the RGV’s biggest LGBTQ+ coalition, released a Pride Calendar that is updated regularly.
STEP’s annual LGBTQ+ Initiative Scholarship is also live. RGV-based LGBTQ+ folx and allies who are pursuing post-secondary education are welcome to apply, as long as they will advocate for the LGBTQ+ community in some way.
Alyx Parras (he/him) was one of the scholarship recipients in 2025 and used the funds toward his Texas Master Naturalist and Texas Master Gardener courses. In his application essay, Parras wrote that he would like to connect more of the LGBTQ+ community with nature.
“Now I work at a natural park, where I get to bring my friends in to help volunteer and tell them, ‘Come out with me, and I’ll give you a tour, or I’ll show you the different things that we do,’” he said. “I’m proud of that.”
This year, Parras also became a STEP board member, which he describes as a full-circle moment. With backgrounds as both a scholarship grantee and a board member, Parras urges anyone interested in applying to do so and to avoid letting self-doubt stop them.
“Do not feel discouraged because you think ‘Oh, my essay’s not gonna be very good grammatically or whatever reason.’ That’s not what we’re looking at,” he said. “We’re looking at your passion and what you want to do with it. I truly encourage everybody who wants to apply to apply. If you show that passion of ‘I’ve been here. I’ve been feeling the weight of the world on the queer shoulders, and I really want to help them out,’ then yes, we will see that.”
This will be the 10th year that STEP offers the Initiative Scholarship, and STEP aims to provide more scholarships this year than in any year before. In collaboration with RGV PRISM, STEP has awarded 54 scholarships totaling $29,000 over the last decade.
For Parras, having a scholarship like the Initiative Scholarship that increases LGBTQ+ awareness and advocacy is so meaningful to see, especially in the RGV.
“The LGBTQ community is always something that’s been really overlooked, so having a scholarship that is specifically promoting the awareness and advocating for the community is really powerful, and it’s equally powerful to have a scholarship specifically for LGBT people,” he said. “Those are already rare to come by, and then having it be location-specific to the RGV helps out the people here who are wanting to further their education, and it helps us generally to get more awareness out.”
According to STEP President Hector Ruiz, some of the scholarships have been awarded in honor of various community members who were part of the Scholarship Committee or members of the RGV community, such as Frank Hernandez Escalante, who was from Weslaco and a victim of the Pulse Nightclub shooting, and Dorinda Ma, a teacher and ally who was part of the Scholarship Committee in its early years.
Folx can apply to the scholarship here by June 30 at 11:59 PM. If the applicant is selected, they will be asked to submit proof of enrollment, such as a course schedule, tuition statement, or transcript. There is no age requirement, but if under 18, applicants will need a parent/guardian signature. Grantees should be notified around early August.
And for LGBTQ+ community members experiencing their first Pride events this month, Parras wants them to know they are welcome to showcase their authentic selves, however that looks, and that they are loved.
“I love all of our baby queers, and it’s so exciting for a person to see their first Pride event,” he said. “Feel the love, feel the excitement, come in and just allow yourself to be fully immersed in the Pride event. It’s such an experience going to your first Pride and seeing all the rainbows and all of the flags everywhere, and you’re just like ‘Oh my god, maybe I do belong somewhere.’”
