Kris King ’24 Named 2024 Harvard Gender and Sexuality Caucus Award Recipient

The Harvard Gender and Sexuality Caucus named Kris King ’24 the recipient of the 2024 HGSC Award.

The HGSC Award, which was launched in 2020, grants at least $1,000 in prize money to a graduating senior for their contributions to queer activism, leadership, and community service.

King, an intern at the Office of BGLTQ Student Life as well as founder and executive director of TransHarvard, described their reaction to receiving the award.

“It's really just incredible to have my work be recognized in this way by incredible alumni of the University, and to be able to share in the honor with so many amazing graduating seniors,” they said.

Joseph J. Barretto ’97, the president of HGSC, talked about being impressed by applicants’ accomplishments.

“Whenever I read the applications, I’m always amazed by the breadth of activism that happens on campus related to BGLTQ students,” Barretto said.

King mentioned the critical role queer activism and leadership play in creating safe spaces for the expression of queer and trans identity.

“It’s certainly a point of pride for me to be the first trans all-American curler, and be queer and trans in any number of other spaces that are not necessarily centering queer and trans people,” King said.

“The best thing we can encourage is for folks to be unapologetically queer — as long as it is safe for them to do so — and to continue to carve out spaces at Harvard for whatever communities they need in order to feel at home here,” they added.

Barretto commented on how current students carry on the legacy of queer activism, particularly the cases he comes into contact with through applications for the HGSC award.

“There are still issues being faced by LGBTQ+ students. They may not be the same issues that students dealt with in the 1980s and 1990s, but they’re there,” Barretto said.

“It's great to see that there are these students who are working on these different issues and keeping these things alive,” he added.

King also discussed their hope for the future of queer activism and younger students who will step into queer and trans leadership positions following their graduation.

“I’m also incredibly proud of the freshmen that have been a part of my team all year, who are taking over TransHarvard, Matteo and Safara, who are both rising sophomores,” King said.

“Our future years are incredibly prepared to continue this work. We have incredible underclassmen and incredible incoming freshmen,” King added.

King will be officially announced as the award winner at Harvard College’s Lavender Graduation on Wednesday.

—Staff writer Anna Feng can be reached at anna.feng@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Nicole L. Guo can be reached at nicole.guo@thecrimson.com.