Goodbodyfeel’s new initiative is making teacher training more accessible for BIPOC applicants
Representation matters. It’s an absolutely essential part of reclaiming and decolonizing spaces for the Black, Indigenous and People of Colour community. Goodbodyfeel’s new initiative, Fueling Reclamation, is bolstering the fight for representation, by making their teacher training more accessible for BIPOC applicants. By doing this, they are helping to decolonize the wellness industry.
Robin Lacambra had already been working in the movement and wellness industry for many years when she moved to Hamilton. As she began to practice in studios in her new city, she recognized the lack of representation of the BIPOC community in studios not only in Hamilton but also in Toronto where she grew up.
“It just sparked this awareness that I was asleep, to the political nature ever-present in studio spaces or just in spaces in general when you've got a space of bodies because our bodies are political. So it was in trying to find a movement community here in Hamilton that I woke up to a need of mine, which is to have a space that felt safe for me to be in my full expression as a queer woman of colour,” explained Lacambra.
"It just sparked this awareness that I was asleep, to the political nature ever-present in studio spaces or just in spaces in general when you've got a space of bodies because our bodies are political."
Robin Lacambra
This realization prompted Lacambra to create the space that she needed. She started teaching pop-ups in 2018 and then that same year ran her first teacher training. Many of the graduates from the course went on to be the teaching staff for Goodbodyfeel when it officially opened in 2019.
While Goodbodyfeel is a Pilates, yoga and mindfulness studio, at its core it’s a place of inclusion, healing, empowerment and representation.
“[It’s] a place where all bodies can come home to their bodies without shame and with compassion,” said Lacambra.
[It’s] a place where all bodies can come home to their bodies without shame and with compassion.
Robin Lacambra
This philosophy is at the heart of Goodbodyfeel and everything they do, from the classes they offer to the individuals they employ.
“We really centre values of equity and representation, equity and accessibility. I don't ignore the hard realities of systemic oppression and the studio works to challenge systems of oppression, both in the way that we run our business and the way that we share our offerings to the broader public, in the folks that I employ . . . and we do our offerings, don't shy away from creating exclusive spaces for safer spaces. So we have classes that are exclusively for folks of colour, we have classes that are exclusively for queer, trans and non-binary folks, we have classes that are exclusively for folks in bigger bodies. And so yeah, we believe in creating these inclusive spaces for healing,” said Lacambra.
Goodbodyfeel’s teaching staff is mostly made up of BIPOC women, with 10 of 14 teachers being BIPOC and of these 10, seven are Black. Lacambra continues to offer a teacher training program at Goodbodyfeel and also offers scholarships for BIPOC individuals in an effort to make the training more financially accessible.
In February, Goodbodyfeel launched a crowdfunding campaign, Fueling Reclamation, to offer the teacher training program free of charge this year to the 15 individuals who applied for BIPOC scholarships and to help finance a BIPOC specific edition of the teacher training in 2022.
“For me, it is the way to radically shift representation of leaders in wellness. Many wellness practices are from brown and black cultures of origin and why isn’t our mainstream leadership reflective of that . . . It started off as just scholarships or subsidies that I could afford to give and seeing that the folks who would apply for the scholarship and subsidies were growing every year. I imagined what would be possible if I could say yes to everybody, what would be possible if I could give a fully free training? Wouldn't that be so amazing? Wouldn't that be one of the things to really help decolonize wellness and push back on these capitalistic ideas of leadership training, of teacher training?” explained Lacambra.
I imagined what would be possible if I could say yes to everybody, what would be possible if I could give a fully free training? Wouldn't that be so amazing? Wouldn't that be one of the things to really help decolonize wellness and push back on these capitalistic ideas of leadership training, of teacher training?
Robin Lacambra
This campaign is an example of an easy, concrete way the larger Hamilton community can support the BIPOC community and contribute to decolonization.
“It's overdue. This kind of investment into BIPOC leadership is overdue [and] it's easy reparations for the folks who are like, “Oh, I'm so overwhelmed. How I can contribute to anti-racist work?” Here you go, here's a really easy way to do it. Just help fund it, help spread the word, help empower our future changemakers. If we're fully fueling BIPOC leadership, we are fueling an equitable future,” emphasized Lacambra.
By Anonymous, Contributor
As a non-Chinese faculty member, I have been following events unraveling around the Student Representative Assembly’s decision to de-ratify the McMaster Chinese Students and Scholars Association. As an associate chair of my department, I interact with undergraduate students on a daily basis, which is why I was troubled to hear about how the Student Representative Assembly proceeded with the de-ratification of a student-run group on campus. Recent reports reveal that SRA representatives believed that they had placed Mac CSSA on probation for six months, while the group itself was not notified. Furthermore, Mac CSSA was de-ratified during a meeting on Sept. 22 for which the club was not given due notice.
From reading the SRA meeting minutes and watching live streams of the SRA proceedings, I was struck by the unanimity of it all. Many questions were raised but not discussed and many comments were made but not challenged. Some SRA members even mentioned the absence of Mac CSSA or any rebuttal document at the final de-ratification meeting. Yet, no one in that room tried to table the motion to de-ratify Mac CSSA. What would have changed if the proceedings had been delayed to allow for a chat with the Equity and Inclusion Office, to consult a lawyer and, at the very least, to allow CSSA members to attend the de-ratification meeting? By not properly engaging with opposing voices in the SRA chamber, the rush to judgement that occurred with the de-ratification of Mac CSSA seems to have emerged from a groupthink mentality.
Given my experience as an equity-seeking person myself, as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, watching this unfold has made me extremely emotional. By speaking with one voice, rushing to judgement and bypassing the regular procedures, the SRA’s actions threatened not a single group on campus, but the entire institution. This type of prosecution, though clearly not at the same level of magnitude, has shades of the Lavender Scare or even McCarthyism. In those times, as the guilt of the accused was decided prior to the public accusation, any irregular process to convict them was sufficient. Never mind that once accused, there was no chance of defense. Only after the Sept. 22 de-ratification and after Mac CSSA had initiated an appeal process themselves did the SRA give Mac CSSA a chance to answer questions regarding the allegations put forward to de-ratify them. The evidence presented by Mac CSSA in their appeal was dismissed and the SRA denied their appeal.
I’m not defending the actions of Mac CSSA and I’m not even saying that the MSU is wrong to censure a club. But I strongly believe that the cornerstones of our democracy are the right to a fair trial, the right to defend oneself and the right to be presumed innocent. In a fair system, if your arguments are valid, your evidence is sound and your process is unbiased, there is no reason to fear the presence of the accused. Particularly when dealing with an equity-seeking group, it is imperative to ensure that all the necessary steps of a process have been taken with care so there is no questions about the outcome. Even if the outcome may not be different, a fair and transparent procedure is necessary. The process is what protects our values. It is what protects us from fear-mongering, from undue influences and partisanship.
Joshua Marando has admitted that he made such mistakes with regards to CSSA “not being informed at the meeting” as well as the miscommunication of the “initial probation”. While he referred to them as “big oversights,” they were downplayed as “not intentional by any means,” implying to me that even a compromised process can be justified.
The SRA should not be allowed to get away with this. When we compromise procedural justice, even the most righteous of intentions can lead to significant unintended consequences. In this case, the irresponsible management of Mac CSSA’s de-ratification has had profound consequences. Due to my position as an associate chair, I interact with many Chinese undergraduates, graduate students, staff and faculty colleagues, all with varying views. This incident has led to the alienation of a large group of people who may have differing political views, but who are still important members of the McMaster community.
As a student government body that represents people with diverse backgrounds, it is critical for the MSU to maintain an impartial political stance, and treat everyone equally and fairly, which includes international students. The MSU should not forget that Mac CSSA is a club of their own fellow students. They are not some nameless and faceless foreign government entity that some SRA members may have implied in the height of their groupthink euphoria.
The Mac CSSA de-ratification reveals the kind of power the SRA has — in terms of club de-ratification, they are able to act as witnesses, judge, jury and executioner in a decision-making process. It must be made clear to them that such power comes with the trust of the McMaster community, which should be used to strive for equality and inclusivity, instead of dividing the campus by abusing it.
This should really be a wake-up call for the MSU that undue procedures can be a slippery slope that you cannot come back from. The step to de-ratify a club that consists of fellow students is a serious one and deserves thoughtful action. With that being said, this Mac CSSA-gate fiasco could provide an opportunity to establish precedents and norms to prevent it from happening again, similar to the development of the Miranda rights for people accused of criminal actions.
The MSU should really reflect on why they were so quick to compromise their own processes — what was their justification and what would have been the harm of following the correct procedures? The MSU should take measures to counteract groupthink by assigning a devil’s advocate or equity champion, by consulting a specialist before making a decision, by involving third-party members to get impartial opinions or by setting up a rule that the leadership should be absent from discussion to avoid overly influencing decisions.
The MSU should also be aware of the systematic barriers and implicit biases that may have played a role in their flawed procedures. They have an obligation to reach out to the less privileged groups of students to help them be a part of the community, to have a voice at the table, to communicate and connect and to be valued.
As David Farr, acting president of McMaster, recently said, “Equity, diversity, and inclusion are critical to our academic mission and vital for innovation and excellence.”
The MSU should play a leading role in that mission, rather than acting against it.
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cw: References to sexual assault
If you were near Hamilton City Hall at around 6 p.m. on Sept. 19, you would have heard throngs of people yelling “revolution!”. If you had taken a closer look, you would have seen Danielle Boissoneau, the coordinator for Take Back The Night, standing behind a microphone on a makeshift stage and prompting each shout from the crowd with an exuberant “joyful!”
Together, they formed a chorus — a call honouring this year’s Take Back The Night theme: Joyful Revolution Always.
Take Back The Night is an annual event organized in Hamilton by the Sexual Assault Centre (Hamilton), a non-profit organization that supports survivors of sexual assault. Traditionally, Take Back The Night has been an opportunity for women and gender non-conforming folks in the community to speak out against sexual violence and to advocate on behalf of survivors. It has also celebrated with music, performances, art and tables for local organizations that support women and non-binary folks.
The first instance of Take Back The Night in Hamilton dates back to 1981. This year marks the event’s 38th year in the city and its first year in recent history without a march.
The Take Back The Night march began as a symbolic protest to the violence that women experienced when walking alone at night. Since then, it has grown into a method of raising awareness of all forms of violence in the community as well as a way to show support for survivors.
On Sept. 12, however, SACHA released a statement on their blog to announce that they decided not to march this time. The organization cited safety as a main concern, though the matter swiftly became a discussion of not only safety, but also about relationships with the Hamilton city police.
“On Sept. 4, 2019, the Take Back the Night (TBTN)Committee hosted a ‘TBTN Community Townhall on Safety’ — we wanted to hear right from the community what safety looks like for them … What was interesting was that no one mentioned the police as a place of safety,” wrote a representative from SACHA in their official statement.
The situation snowballed into a series of meetings. In consideration of the feedback and turnout from previous Take Back The Night events, SACHA attended a meeting with Ward 3 Councillor Nrinder Nann, intending to ask for four street lanes to be closed instead of the one lane that Take Back The Night attendees used in previous marches. They were surprised to find out they were not allowed to follow the usual route used in previous Take Back The Night events.
In an effort to reach a compromise, an alternate route for the march was proposed. However, this second option required the inclusion of five paid duty officers, an unexpected fee that SACHA was unable to pay. In a prior Take Back The Night event, the city had provided SACHA with funding for three officers. There had been no such offer this year.
“We took it upon ourselves to revisit the table with the city and the police. We tried to work out an agreement … and then the agreement started to fall into bad faith negotiations, because they started trying to sneak in things at the last minute that were not acceptable,” said Boissoneau.
In the end, SACHA decided it was best to cancel the march.
Lisa Colbert of the Woman Abuse Working Group said she had not been sure at first about SACHA’s decision. As she prepared her organization’s table for the event, she admitted that the march was something she enjoyed. However, although the energy might feel different this time, she recognized that to march despite the predicament with the police would be to do the opposite of empowering those who were marching.
Similarly, Kat Williams of the Workers’ Arts and Heritage Centre said that a successful partnership with the police and all public servants would not be possible while those in power continued not to listen.
“In order to serve the people who are in the margins, the people who are suffering — those are the people we need to elevate. It’s especially important for the police industry to listen to those people, and I don’t think that has happened at many gatherings recently,” she added, taking care to emphasize that her views do not necessarily represent that of her organization.
In the same regard, Gachi Issa of the McMaster Womanists expressed support for SACHA’s decision. Taking into account Canada’s history with the police, she believed SACHA did the right thing by prioritizing the needs of the most marginalized communities.
With this in mind, Issa said that the presence of the police was always something that should be contested.
“The police had never been safe for the most marginalized communities and have been created and set up in a way to marginalize us further and to kill us. My hesitation is to always critique the involvement of police and police presence,” Issa said.
For Boissoneau, the change in this year’s Take Back The Night event was a reminder for community members to hold institutions accountable. Institutions like the police and SACHA, she said, must focus on their responsibilities to the people.
When asked whether she believed the cancellation of the march had a profound effect on Take Back The Night this year, Boissoneau stated that it had. She admitted the people were disappointed about not having a march — but this disappointment, at the same time, was causing them to re-evaluate how they defined reclamation.
“A lot of people are like, we must march to be able to be powerful. I don’t necessarily think that that’s true. I think that people have the ability to reclaim their autonomy … There’s so many different ways to do it. Marching is only one of those ways,” said Boissoneau.
Jessica Bonilla-Damptey, SACHA’s director, did not agree that there was a palpable difference. She acknowledged that the march had always been a big component of Take Back The Night but that despite its absence, joy was the dominant feeling in this year’s event.
“I am seeing lots of folks — folks from everywhere, all different nationalities, all different walks of life, all different languages. Everyone is smiling, everybody’s participating. Everybody’s around the tables, looking at what kind of resources are available in our community and everybody’s celebrating … I see joy and I hear joy around me,” she explained.
For Bonilla-Damptey, the priority was to embody this year’s theme of joyful revolution. The importance was in the community coming together to celebrate each other and show support for survivors, regardless of the role that the police played in the event-planning process and regardless of what might have been different this year.
Issa felt that the same sentiment was applicable to the idea of community care.
“We are safe because of each other. Not because of police or because of security. We make each other safe. In order to get to a revolution, we have to be able to sustain each other and to find joy within each other,” she said.
On Sept. 19, there were no buses waiting to accommodate people who could not march alongside the assemblage and, as the sun set over Hamilton City hall, there was no crowd following SACHA’s usual route.
There was, however, music and spoken word. There were tables that belonged to groups that supported women-identifying and non-binary folks. There were t-shirts and there were signs that said We Believe You and Empower Others.
Despite the aftermath of SACHA’s nuanced relationship with the police, Bonilla-Damptey stressed that one facet left unchanged in this year’s Take Back The Night was its ability to facilitate connections within the community.
Attendees lined up for food. They took buttons and pens as they stopped at each table to speak to the person running it. They gathered to hear the story of Lucy, an elderly survivor for whom the crowd chanted, “We believe Lucy!”
People tend to believe, according to Boissoneau, that revolution began at an individual level. She argued, however, that when individuals get together and collectively reclaim their space, as hundreds of people did on Take Back The Night — that was revolution.
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Hamilton city council has committed to taking an equity and inclusion lens to municipal decisions going forward.
Two weeks ago, Mayor Fred Eisenberger brought a motion to city council to implement a new equity, diversity and inclusion lens into city policies.
The motion passed unanimously and calls for a report to be brought forward on how to introduce an EDI lens to all city initiatives.
Attached to the motion was a draft version of an equity, diversity and inclusion handbook.
The motion also includes an allocation of $5,000 for city council to hold an EDI summit.
The new lens builds on the recommendations highlighted in Hamilton’s equity and inclusion policy implemented in 2010.
Ward 1 councillor Maureen Wilson said an EDI lens will require the city to be more specific and concrete when it incorporates equity and inclusion into different policies.
According to Wilson, it is not about quotas and targets, but about a shift in decision-making that will require city council to include the perspectives of all communities.
The EDI lens will first be applied to issues concerning housing and homelessness.
However, Wilson sees potential for it to affect how the city envisions issues like transit, helping to consider the ways that different communities, like women or bikers, get around in Hamilton.
Eisenberger’s motion followed debate at city councillor over the city manager search committee and interview process, which some individuals, including Wilson and Ward 3 councillor Nrinder Nann, criticized for not taking a diverse and inclusive approach.
Denise Christopherson, the CEO of the YWCA Hamilton and chair of the status of women committee, has called for city council to adopt an EDI framework for years.
Christopherson said she is encouraged by the support for the motion at city council and appreciative of the efforts of Wilson and Nann in pushing this forward.
“It’s been in the works for a long time,” Christopherson said. “To develop a framework, this is going to be a multi-year work project that hopefully gets ingrained in everything they do at city hall. So when they're putting forward a proposal, it’s about, have they gone through the lens of inclusion? Who have they consulted with?”
The YWCA Hamilton currently runs multiple programs providing housing for non-binary people and women without places to stay.
Christopherson is hopeful that the new lens will result in more funding for programs like these.
“I like to say that the city should have a hand in all marginalized communities,” Christopherson said. “Hopefully we see more investment in those necessary programs.”
Community organizer Sophie Geffros is also optimistic about the new lens and what it could mean for current city council issues.
“I’m cautiously excited about it, because it signals to me that the city is at least beginning to acknowledge that designing a city around the needs of straight, white, middle class, able bodied men is not just ineffective but can be actively harmful for its marginalized citizens,” Geffros said.
As the city still awaits a report on how the lens will be implemented, activists and supporters of the motion are hopeful about the many policy areas a city-wide EDI framework could effect change in.
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By: Drew Simpson
On Feb. 26, the Green is not White environmental racism workshop took place at the Hamilton Public Library’s Wentworth room. The free, open-to all workshop, garnered intrigue from attendees interested in learning about environmental racism.
Presenters sat on a raised platform and the room was filled with chart easel pads, activist posters and resources. The Green is Not White workshop, which is organized by Adapting Canadian Work and Workplaces in partnership with the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Environment Hamilton and the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion started its seven-hour agenda with a land acknowledgement, icebreakers and then laid down foundational knowledge.
Environmental racism is originally defined by Prof. Benjamin Chavis as the racial discrimination and unequal enforcement of environmental policies. The types of environmental racism have expanded since this 1987 definition and currently encompass air pollution, clean water, climate migration, extreme weather, food production, gentrification and toxins in the community and workplace.
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The crust of the issue is that ethnic minorities are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards. Black and Indigenous populations are most affected by environmental racism, yet this makes it no less of a collective issue. Local case studies were highlighted to drive this message close to home.
For example, most of Hamilton’s waste facilities are clustered just north of and within residential areas. This includes a proposed electronic waste processing facility, which can cause lead and mercury exposure, and an existing chemical wastes facility that is known for chemical explosions causing evacuations and serious injury. Loads of biosolids have been trucked through neighbourhoods posing disease risks from pathogens, concerns of terrible odours and ammonia use for steam filtering.
Studies show that Hamilton neighbourhoods with single-parent families and low education are the most exposed to air pollution. Since these neighbourhoods have fewer resources and are systematically marginalized, they are targeted by acts of environmental racism. The hashtag #EnvRacismCBTUACW continually discusses case studies across Canada.
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Along with the extensive examples of Canadians and Hamiltonians living in dire conditions due to environmental racism, as well as the government’s oversight of this issue, various Hamilton organizations have taken it upon themselves to drive change.
This workshop was the third part of a four-phase action research initiative on environmental racism by ACW, which develops tools to better the environmental conditions of jobs and the workplace and CBTU, a coalition that breaks the silence on African-Canadians’ labour issues. While this third stage involves community engagement, the fourth and final stage involves a joint report and video that will be housed on both the ACW and CBTU websites.
The slogan “Green is Not White” highlights that green jobs and environmentally safe conditions should not be reserved for white people. People of colour are most likely to work and live in dire conditions, and therefore deserve economic justice and access to clean water and land.
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By: Donna Nadeem
On Jan. 22, Arig al Shaibah, the associate vice-president (Equity and Inclusion) with the McMaster equity and inclusion office, held an event in the Mills Library Connections Centre centered around McMaster’s “Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Framework and Strategy.”
During her term, al Shaibah plans to engage with local and historically underrepresented and marginalized communities to understand and learn about their challenges.
She hopes this awareness will enable her to build strong ideas and strategies to advance the equity and inclusion goals at McMaster.
The event begin with al Shaibah’s presentation on McMaster’s EDI framework and strategy.
McMaster’s EDI framework is broken down into four pillars: institutional commitment and capacity, educational content and context, interactional capabilities and climate and compositional diversity and community engagement.
The first pillar aims to “mobilize McMaster’s commitment and capacity to advance inclusive excellence by establishing and resourcing structures, systems, policies and processes that facilitate equity, diversity and inclusion leadership, governance and accountability.”
The second pillar seeks to strengthen academic programs, practices and scholarships to ensure they “demonstrate relevance… to diverse local, regional, national and global communities.”
The third pillar focuses on improving the McMaster community’s ability to foster a culture of inclusion and an environment where members feel “a sense of dignity and belonging.”
The fourth pillar aims to engage marginalized communities on campus, enhance employment equity, and improve student access and success amongst historically underrepresented students and community members.
“Not everyone here feels included, so even among our diverse [community population], some of us may feel included and others not, in part because of inequities that exist,” said al Shaibah.
Al Shaibah explained an action plan that would help facilitate the development of the EDI plan.
Some of the points included developing goals across the institution and faculties and integrating the EDI into academic programs and self-reported student experiences, strengthening complaint resolution from harassment and discrimination complaints and increasing training for McMaster community members and committees.
Throughout the presentation, al Shaibah spoke in abstract terms, not outlining specific initiatives that the university will undertake take to improve student access and success amongst marginalized students and training for McMaster community members.
After the presentation, the floor was open for students to express concerns and feedback.
Students asked for more clarity about McMaster’s plans to meet the objectives stipulated in the EDI.
Even after students pressed further, Shaibah still failed to clarify what in particular she would do to work to combat the problems she raised.
One student expressed concern over the fact that his friend who is of Indigenous descent was not able to obtain a Teaching Assistant position for an Indigenous course while a student who was not of Indigenous heritage successfully secured the position.
Al Shaibah responded that if the candidates’ qualifications were equal, the Indigenous students’ application should have been prioritized.
Students also asked about whether other universities have implemented this EDI framework and whether it has been successful for them.
Al Shaibah said that some schools have explored strategies similar to this, but have not pursued an ‘across the board’ strategy that applied to faculties across the entire institution.
In addition, students asked how they could get involved with the implementation of the strategy.
According to Al Shaibah, McMaster students can promote the EDI framework through clubs and the McMaster Students Union. Students can also contact McMaster’s equity and inclusion office at equity@mcmaster.ca.
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By Lilian Obeng
Over the course summer, city council voted in favour of paying public tribute to Hamilton’s LGBTQ+ community. The intersections in front of city hall and McMaster University, Summers Lane at Main Street West and Sterling Street respectively, now don brightly coloured trans and pride flags.
The decision was met with praise across the board. McMaster University specifically seized on the opportunity to integrate the new crosswalks into their overall public-relations strategy — tweets, Facebook posts and even an Instagram post. A bright, simple and public display of support for a marginalized community, such as this, is unlikely to encounter many challenges. But as a queer student who has been on this campus for upwards of three years, these crosswalks are only a bleak reminder of the actual priorities of the university’s administration.
Symbolic gestures, such as these crosswalks, can be important political statements. Given the current political climate, I would be remiss if I did not highlight the need to remain firm and resolute in our solidarity with the marginalized. However, what purpose do rainbow crosswalks serve when the university fails to ensure the safety of its LGBTQ+ community?
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This was best illustrated by Jordan Peterson’s visit to our campus, and the university’s dismal response to staff, student and faculty outcry. In March 2017, a McMaster Students Union ratified club invited Peterson to campus to speak on ‘political correctness.’ Needless to say, the visit was marred with controversy from its planning stages all the way through to Peterson’s arrival.
Peterson rose to prominence for refusing to use his trans students correct pronouns at the University of Toronto, citing the mere act of respecting students as compelled speech and infringing on his own rights. He has since gone on to accrue a host of misogynistic and racist views. Peterson’s bigoted diatribes have earned him legions of right-wing and white supremacist support as well as personal wealth.
Needless to say, all of this information was presented multiple times to multiple levels of the university. The President’s Advisory Council on Building and Inclusive Community brought students, staff and faculty together to lucidly explain the potential threat Peterson’s visit could pose to already vulnerable people. Our concern was met with silence, and in these times, silence is complicity.
Peterson supporters — supporters that had absolutely no affiliation with McMaster or the broader Hamilton community, physically assaulted student protesters. Members of PACBIC faced weeks of harassment both in-person and online from Peterson’s fans. The university has made little to no attempt to ameliorate this situation. The only action that has been taken were the creation of guidelines for event planners — guidelines that demonstrate that the university’s understanding of the free speech debate is informed entirely by right-wing propaganda and not the social realities that are present on our campus.
The fact remains that if our struggles cannot be moulded or integrated into the existing public relations strategy of the university, our legitimate concerns fall by the wayside. Our pointed policy solutions, our calm consultations, and even our protests are either tokenized, such as with these crosswalks, or minimized and placed aside. The LGBTQ+ community deserves more than this spectacle.
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