June is not just for celebrating queer love, it’s for uplifting written queer perspectives
By: Kate Linardic, Opinion Contributor
As Pride Month approaches its close amid parade-funding losses and intensifying attacks on
queer rights across the continent, it is more important than ever to look to queer thinkers for guidance.
Learning queer history and theory is not just for its scholars. The perspectives offered by queer thinkers across disciplines are crucial both to understanding the present political moment and for building solidarities. Through engaging with these ideas, the celebration of Pride Month becomes an exercise in imagining new, queer ways of being, thinking, and creating unity.
One such relevant work of queer thought is the 2024 book by political and gender theorist Judith Butler: Who’s Afraid of Gender. In the book, Butler provides arguments in support of transgender rights, while explaining the positioning of gender as a scapegoat for the anxieties of the 21st century. The book directly outlines how queer people are being attacked, and where there is room to support queerness against these attacks.
Reading work like that of Butler helps open up meaningful conversation about how to ensure the safety and liberty of queer folk during Pride Month.
Conversations like Butler’s regarding the place of queerness in the world are not new. Queer thinkers have been combatting bigotry and sharing their stories for decades.
Publications like Toronto’s The Body Politic, printed throughout the 1970s and 80s,ran articles about understanding homophobia and exposing discrimination against queer individuals in school and in the workplace. Stories like these empower queer readers, as well as fold non-queer allies into the fight for liberation.
Returning to a focus on both the struggles for and formulations of queer liberation is a return to the roots of Pride Month.
Pride began in the 1960s as a protest against police raiding gay bars in New York City, eventually evolving into a larger movement for queer liberation across the world.
It is especially important to remember these early queer Pride movements were not widely accepted for decades after the fact. In Hamilton, it took years, plus a 1995 Ontario Human Rights Commission Case, for the City to begin to issue civic proclamations for Gay Pride Week. Same-sex relationships remain criminalized in 64 nations around the world, with many other nations also restricting the rights of transgender and gender-nonconforming persons.
With these ongoing struggles in mind, the work of queer scholars, activists, and journalists helps keep us thinking about forms of queer liberation. Pride Month can be an important month for re-imagining the world, finding new space for queer voices, and learning meaningful forms of allyship.
McMaster has the opportunity to spotlight queer thought, encouraging its consideration, and bringing it to the forefront across our libraries. The institution has access to incredible collections of 2SLGBTQIA+ archival material, books and periodicals, all of which contain valuable insights into the past and present of queer existence.
This Pride Month, reading through these collections is one of the best practices any queer student, faculty member or ally could partake in. These collections contain the ideas that help the fight for queer liberation to progress, and can convey messages that forge new solidarities across groups
Yes, street parades, drag brunches and club nights are important ways of celebrating queerness, but it is also of upmost importance to continue the work of securing a place for queerness in this world.
The Student Wellness Centre hosted four events throughout June, providing opportunities for 2SLGBTQIA+ students to connect with each other
At McMaster University, different student services and clubs have been celebrating Pride in a number of different ways. The EngiQueers took students to march in the Toronto Pride parade. The Faculty of Health Sciences hosted a talk with nurse and equity advocate Ellie Reyes about providing thoughtful, respectful care for 2SLGBTQIA+ communities.
This year, the Student Wellness Centre also hosted four events to celebrate and recognize all 2SLGBTQIA+ students.
They kicked off the series with their “Embracing Gender Diversity” in-person drop-in group. They also hosted a “Food for Thought: 2SLGBTQIA+ Friendly Student Cooking Session” where they made veg stroganoff. The SWC’s “Queer Movie Night” took place on June 15 with the movie being “Saving Face”. They finished off the month with a Pride social which included guided painting, snacks and games. This last event was exclusively for 2SLGBTQIA+ students.
Taylor Mertens and Zeinab Khawaja, health promoters at the SWC, worked diligently to bring students these events. They both expressed that the hope with this programming was to have a space exclusively for members of the queer community to meet and expand their own network of classmates.
“It’s an opportunity to connect, do something creative and just meet other students with similar identities. Which can be really hard for a lot of students. There’s a lot of loneliness and not knowing where to meet other 2SLGBTQIA+ students,” said Khawaja.
It’s an opportunity to connect, do something creative and just meet other students with similar identities. Which can be really hard for a lot of students. There’s a lot of loneliness and not knowing where to meet other 2SLGBTQIA+ students.
Zeinab Khawaja, health promoter, Student Wellness Centre
The earlier inclusion of events open to 2SLGBTQIA+ folks, questioning folks and straight allies and then later events exclusively for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community was purposeful.
By creating events that are open for questioning students, they hoped students would also have a space where they could comfortably explore their identity and then feel more confident to attend 2SLGBTQIA+ community exclusive events in the future.
Mertens and Khawaja explained that this progression was also meant to be supportive for individuals who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+ but may not feel comfortable entering an exclusive space yet.
“Entering a closed space can be a little difficult for people and feelings of not being gay enough, not being queer enough, “not being “x” enough” essentially. The idea is that we’re kind of building up for that. So hopefully, we will have people attend multiple events and feel a little bit more secure and supported to be able then to go to the Pride Social and stuff like that,” said Mertens.
Both Mertens and Khawaja shared that in recent years they have noticed the large influx of McMaster students that find themselves in Hamilton over the summer. Knowing this, they hope to have pride events and other programs like these to support students in the summer months.
“This year there’s a lot of international students who are around during the summer and then [graduate] students [have] to be around in the summer as well as undergrad students who are taking summer courses or just wanting to live independently. We’re trying to be more intentional about having summer programming [for] all students,” said Khawaja.
This year there’s a lot of international students who are around during the summer and then [graduate] students [have] to be around in the summer as well as undergrad students who are taking summer courses or just wanting to live independently. We’re trying to be more intentional about having summer programming [for] all students.
Zeinab Khawaja, health promoter, Student Wellness Centre
Although Pride month has come to an end, the focus on celebrating and supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals doesn't. Khawaja and Mertens shared their goals for the upcoming years with the Silhouete.
Khawaja explained their focus on the intersectionality of identity. By integrating intersectional language into the currently offered programs, she hopes that people who are often overlooked will feel included in programs hosted by the SWC.
Mertens hopes to share knowledge about active living spaces for 2SLGBTQIA+ members. He has found that these spaces are often dominated by cisgender heter onormative communities, sometimes deterring 2SLGBTQIA+ members from partaking. They have more programs in the works for the school year, including drag shows and potlucks.
