Pride Week Toronto, which runs from June 20 to 29, will begin at York with the raising of the rainbow flag at 11am tomorrow at York’s Glendon campus. A flag-raising ceremony at the Keele campus will take place in front of Vari Hall, with remarks by York President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri and an honour guard escort of the flag to the main flagpole, at 11:30am on Tuesday, June 24.
The rainbow flags will fly below the Canadian flags on both flagpoles until June 30.
The theme for this year’s Pride Week Toronto is "unified", a concept that York University embraces in its role as one of the official sponsors of Pride, through the Office of the Ombudsperson & Centre for Human Rights, for the third consecutive year.
Staff, students and faculty are invited to attend the flag-raising to demonstrate support for LGBTT2IQQ individuals and communities. York will have a booth at Pride again this year on Saturday, June 28 and Sunday, June 29. Everyone is welcome to stop by the booth and to march with members of the Transgendered, Bisexuals, Lesbians, and Gays at York (TBLGAY) in the Pride Parade (marching position M 109) on the Sunday.
The TBLGAY serves GLBT and queer-friendly communities at York and around the city. Meet other queer-friendly people at in a safe-space in Room A449 in the Student Centre, Keele campus.
York has been recognized as a leader in Canada, and one of the first to create residence space that is safe and inclusive for students regardless of gender identity and gender expression, where students who are in the process of transition, or who do not identify as male or female, do not have to question which box they best fit in so as to have access to housing.
TBLGAY has several events taking place during Pride Week, including a get-together between 5pm and 1am on Wednesday, June 25, at the Pride Pub @ Hart House at the University of Toronto. On Friday, June 27, from 9pm to 2am,TBLGAY will co-host Heatwave III @ Ram in the Rye Pub, 322 Church Street at the corner of Gould Street in Toronto. This year’s Dyke March takes place on June 28.
The TBLGAY resource library houses about 500 books, articles and magazines, including academic papers, biographies, fiction, non-fiction and research materials.
For more information about Pride Week, visit the Pride Toronto Web site, the TBLGAY Web site or the SexGen York Committee Web Project Web site. To volunteer to help out at the YU@Pride table, contact jwallace@yorku.ca.