It’s been one busy week for UR Pride. Spirit Day, Coming Out Day, It Gets Better Project, Ally Week, gay bashings, and interviews left and right. Here’s this week’s update on UR Pride.
Coming Out Day/It Gets Better Project
As you may have heard, UR Pride promoted National Coming Out Day on October 12th. We set up a table in the Riddell Centre building and gave out t-shirts and brochures. We had a tremendous turn out by the student body and we’re very proud of everyone who took part in the event. UR Pride also allowed students to follow the It Gets Better project (started by Dan Savage on YouTube) by allowing them to sit down and make their own video. Two of these videos have now been posted to UR Pride’s YouTube Channel and more are on their way.
Spirit Day/Ally Week
This week (October 18th to 21st) was Ally Week. Allies are the people that don’t identify as LGBTQ but are supporters and friends of the community. This week is meant to recognize these people and thank them for their contributions. October 20th was also the first ever Spirit Day. Spirit Day started as a response to the numerous homophobia-related suicides that have occurred over the last two months. News about the suicides caused a global reaction resulting in this day as a way of remembering those who died and as a way to bring awareness to the world about LGBTQ issues. Students were asked to wear purple as it represents the symbol of “Spirit” on the rainbow flag. On October 20th, the U of R campus was covered in dots of purple shirts, pants, shoes, and scarves as people took part in the event.
Gay-Bashing in Regina
Over the weekend, 27 year-old Aaron Hampton was assaulted by 3 men at a local restaurant. Hampton and two female friends were involved in the attack leaving Hampton requiring 12 stitches to his lip and scarred for life. The brawl is thought to have started over the Hampton’s painted nails. Homophobic slurs were voiced, one of the females defended Hampton, and the attackers made their move. Regina Police are investigating. UR Pride’s Lisa Smith was interviewed by CBC News about the incident and said that these attacks are not uncommon in Regina and that she is excited that someone has chosen to make the incident public using means like Facebook. The publicity will help show that gay-bashing does happen in Regina. If you’d like to find out more, visit the Facebook page dedicated to the story: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gay-bashing-exposed/167306166617785
Interviews and Media!
With all of the activity going on this month around LGBTQ issues, several media outlets are doing stories on queer issues. The UR Pride Centre has been approached by the CBC, CBC Radio One, News Talk 980 CJME, Journalism Students, and the Carillon Newspaper. UR Pride is currently working on an addition to the UR Pride website to showcase media stories in order to bring you articles and clips featuring the centre. For now, you can find the CBC coverage on our YouTube Channel atwww.youtube.com/urpridecentre. UR Pride is also this week’s feature in the Carillon student newspaper. Be sure to pick up your copy or download an online copy from www.carillonregina.com.
That’s all for this week! Have a good weekend!
Dan Shier
UR Pride Board
