TRUSU hosted the 13th annual pride parade on Wednesday, Sept. 25, outside of Old Main. The Equity Committee organized a resource fair to be set up in front of Old Main with upbeat music and colourful signs while students marched around campus with pride flags and large signs. With hate continuing globally against the LGBT2SQIA+ community, the TRUSU coordinators expressed the necessity in creating safe and uplifting spaces for community members and allies.
TRUSU’s Equity Committee LGBT2SQIA+ Representative Lalitha Dharmapuri and Equity Coordinator Azul-Sky Billy met with the Omega to discuss various topics related to the parade, including the return of the resource fair, which had been discontinued for some time.
“I think that the event was a huge success just because of the people who came up to me after the event and were going on about how much fun they had this year and how the resource fair we had helped them,” Dharmapuri said. “ I saw a lot of students joining in around Old Main while they’re walking to class, so I think it was a great success.”
For the resource fair and the parade, various TRU departments and community organizations set up tables and booths that provided students with helpful resources, stickers, flags and other free merchandise.
“The major difference [from last year] is that we reintroduced having a resource fair,” Billy said. “It was done a couple years back, and it’s been a great idea to reincorporate that because it has brought people together, and the departments were able to share some resources as well as some community organizations.”
Although TRU students have appeared to be mostly welcoming towards the LGBT2SQIA+ community, like elsewhere across the country, intolerant behaviours and abuse against our queer peers continue to persist, according to Dharmapuri.
“I think that such equity initiatives always come along with some kind of hate,” Dharmapuri said. “Personally, even when I was elected as the LGBTQ+ representative at TRU, I received a lot of hate from my peers, but the thing is, having these events is what will eventually extinguish [those attitudes]. We need to raise more awareness. We need to create more spaces for the LGBTQ+ community. It’s very important for us to host these events. It’s important because we need to create these spaces for newer students.”
Dharmapuri and Billy both emphasized the importance of creating accessible spaces for LGBT2SQIA+ students, staff, faculty and allies.
“No matter how much [abusive behaviour] we get, we need to have these events like the pride parade, like the resource fair, where the whole community comes together and says, ‘Okay, we stand by this, and you have us to depend upon, and we’ll be there for you,’” Dharmapuri said.
Dharmapuri also shared her personal experience as an LGBT2SQIA+ community member at TRU.
“I was scared to come out to my new friends that I’d made here. I didn’t know how they would react,” Dharmapuri said. “As an international student, it’s a very different concept. I didn’t know how people would react here. It took me a few months to get there and come out to my new friends. The pride parade was one of the first initiations that made me think ‘oh yeah, maybe I can [come out], maybe it’s not going to be that bad.’”
If you or someone you know is struggling or experiencing abusive behaviour for any reason, there are resources to help you. Information on TRU’s Wellness Centre can be found here, and the phone number of the TRU counselling department is (250) 828-5023.