Honouring and celebrating 2SLGBTQIA+ people: Week 4

June is Pride Month in Canada and each week we have been sharing content to honour and celebrate 2SLGBTQIA+ people and draw attention to the issues this community continues to face. In this last post, we ask you to:

Take action:

• Join Positive Space Campaign, which is a campus-wide initiative intended to raise awareness and visibility of 2SLGBTQIA+ students, staff, faculty, alumni and allies at UBC.
• Support the UBC Gears and Queers student club, which is comprised of 2SLGBTQIA+ engineers and allies. They are dedicated to creating an open, accepting space for queer engineering students at UBC. 
• Support EngiQueers, which is a national organization that celebrates, promotes, and advocates for diversity and inclusivity in engineering.

Learn about:

• The Pride Collective. UBC has a resource group for gender and sexual diversity. Check out the online discussion groups, events and other resources for helping to promote gender diversity at UBC.
• The LOUD Business Creates opportunities for professionals and entrepreneurs within Vancouver’s 2SLGBTQIA+ community to network, learn and grow — both professionally and personally.
• The Health Initiative for Men. HIM is a nonprofit society that aims to strengthen the health and well-being in communities of self-identified GBQ men and gender-diverse people in BC. They offer health-based programming and services to meet the sexual, mental, physical and social health needs of GBQ men and gender diverse people.

Engage with:

• Stories of Two Spirit identities within the Indigenous population: Two Spirit - Queer California Untold Stories
• Stories about LGBTQ2S+ scientists from a variety of different fields in this Podcast - LGBTQ+ Stem Cast.
• Stories – Watch Sex, Sin & 69 – an 80-minute historical, retrospective film about the 1969 legislation to ‘decriminalize’ homosexuality.
• Stories – Read the stories of 2SLGBTQIA+ nurses and allies within the nursing field. 2SLGBTQIA+ nurses form one of the largest minorities within the profession, and yet they are hardly recognized as a subgroup.

Let us celebrate, support and continue the progress that has been achieved through the work of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and supporters.