York goes purple to support queer community

Alastair Woods, external coordinator of TBLGAY, contemplated suicide in grade two. (David Pereira)

Raymond Kwan
Contributor
Several York student groups are asking York students to wear some purple Oct. 20 to support victims of homophobic violence and harassment.
As part of their Wear Purple Campaign, the York Federation of Students (YFS) and the Trans Bisexual Lesbians Gays Allies at York (TBLGAY) are urging all students to wear something purple on Oct. 20 to remember all lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans youth who have recently committed suicide after being harassed and bullied because of their sexual orientation.
According to Steven Broadley, vice-president of operations for the YFS, the campaign features the colour purple because the purple on the rainbow pride flag represents spirit, and students would be demonstrating their enthusiastic support of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) spirit by wearing it.
“People should care about high school students, because we all came out of high school and we understand the struggles, the desperation bullying can cause,” said Broadley.
In an Oct. 19 email sent out to York students, Rob Tiffin, vice-president of students at York, encouraged everyone to wear purple on Oct. 20. He told Excalibur that he will be wearing “something purple” himself.
“We, as a community, should gather together in solidarity and show our support,” he said.
The campaign is designed to coincide with the It Gets Better Project, an international effort that showcases videos of people sharing their stories about how they triumphed over bullying and found happiness. The videos, hosted on www.itgetsbetterproject.com, aim to convince suicidal LGBT teens that “it gets better,” and that they do not have to commit suicide in order to escape harassment.
“We have been receiving a lot of emails and visitors who want to do something about it who similarly are shocked but not surprised,” said TBLGAY external coordinator Alastair Woods, commenting on the recent bullying cases.
“It points to a really big epidemic in society. Not just bullying in school, but in society in general – homophobia is alive and well.”
Woods  argues that the project is one way to actively involve the community and instigate real change as opposed to simply telling youths that everything will be okay.
“We need to start doing something. It doesn’t just get better, we as a community need to have a moral responsibility to make it better,” said Woods, who contemplated suicide when he was in grade two.
TBLGAY will host a panel discussion on the topic Oct. 26 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in room 326 in the Student Centre.
The discussion will let students hear about how other queer and trans members have dealt with harassment and coming out.
“There’s no right way to [come out]. No matter what [LGBT youth] choose, there’s a community that supports them […] I want students on campus to know that we’re here for them,” said Woods.

Alastair Woods, external coordinator of TBLGAY, contemplated suicide in grade two. (David Pereira)

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