For over 50 years, Pride has provided an opportunity to celebrate 2SLGBTQIA+ identities, relationships, communities and rights. Pride has grown each year in size, reach and prominence.
As we look forward to this June’s festivities, however, it is clear we cannot take such progress for granted. In Canada and beyond, we are witnessing concerted efforts to reverse course and turn away from equity, diversity and justice. Amid such challenges, it is important to remember our formative experiences and values: that Pride was born of 1969’s Stonewall Riots and the resistance to oppression; that Toronto, one of the world’s most multicultural cities and home to one of the largest Pride celebrations, thrives through its embrace of diversity; and that York was founded on the conviction that knowledge is a means to social justice.
Recalling these roots will allow us to safeguard hard-won progress, weather current storms and continue moving forward.
See below to learn about recent relevant scholarship and creative work by York community members and how you can play a part in affirming 2SLGBTQIA+ rights and dignity:
- Associate Professor Antony Chum’s research on the intersection of gender identity and disability using Canadian census data paves the way for new advocacy and action to improve health-care policy and systems for gender diverse individuals.
- York alumna Lesley Loksi Chan’s film, Lloyd Wong, Unfinished, is an award-winning short documentary about Lloyd Wong, a Chinese Canadian gay man living with AIDS in Toronto during the early 1990s, connects individual experience and memory with collective identity and future.
The YUPride website provides a schedule of events open to all community members throughout Pride Month. This includes the Keele Campus flag unfurling in the Vari Hall Rotunda, as well as events at Glendon Campus’ Centre of Excellence and the first floor atrium at Markham Campus. All celebrations take place at 1 p.m. on June 4. We hope you will join us there to celebrate and sustain the momentum toward Pride.
Thank you. Merci. Miigwech.
Rhonda L. Lenton
President & Vice-Chancellor
Laina Y. Bay-Cheng
Vice-President, Equity, People & Culture