Halloween may be over, but campus remained full of colour and wonder for another week with this year’s MacPride.

MacPride is an annual event organized by McMaster’s Queer Students Community Cen-tre that took place this year from Oct. 31-Nov. 5. The week brings LGBTQ+-identifying students, faculty and staff together to celebrate diversity in gender and sexuality and to create a space where identifying individuals can be unapologetically themselves.

“I think MacPride is a really cool opportunity to create spaces for students who identify as LGBTQ because we often don’t see representation or visibility among faculty or in the uni-versity’s institutions,” said the QSCC coordinator. “A lot of these institutions are built to kind of exclude LGBTQ students, so it’s really important to create a campaign that tells students that they are welcome and there are spaces for them if they ever need them.”

The week was filled with a variety of events ranging from educational to entertaining. Each event aimed to build community and representation across campus for LGBTQ+ identifying individuals everywhere. From drop-in style board game fun and banner painting to informative workshops on LGBTQ+ relationships, sex and bodies, there were events for every taste.

“A lot of the events are focused on bringing people together,” said the coordinator. “I think a large part of the struggle for queer students is finding other queer students, so just providing events that are very simple allows students to sit down together and kind of just talk and they can connect over that shared experience is really important.”

The annual MacPride march and rally brought hundreds of LGBTQ+ identifying students, faculty, staff and their allies together to march through campus in a prominent demonstration of both LGBTQ+ pride and McMaster’s efforts in working towards an environment in which identifying students feel both safe and welcome.

This week also saw the launch of McMaster’s new Trans Community Group. This initiative serves as a branch of peer support, exclusive to trans students and meant to provide a safer space for trans and non-binary folk.

“A lot of students come from very diverse backgrounds and a lot of those backgrounds aren’t necessarily positive,” explained the coordinator. “It’s really important that when they come to uni-versity they see that these spaces exist for them and that they know they’re safe because it can be very challenging when you’re struggling with your identity to not feel like you have a community.”

As the week came to an end, the main focus of the campaign was clear; more visibility on campus and building a community where students feel like they belong.

“The effect I’d want to see from this campaign is having students who never really felt like they had a community or didn’t feel connected, or didn’t feel safe in their identity found that space, or even saw the supportive environment if they weren’t able to come out to any of the events.” noted the coordinator.

“I hope that they now feel more comfortable at McMaster knowing that people do accept them for who they are.”

If you grew up in the 1980s and were gay, there weren’t really any TV shows you could relate to.  All in the Family featured the first gay character on a sitcom in 1971, but it took awhile before gay characters had major roles or storylines. Liss Platt wanted to do something about that.

“When I was in school, you didn’t have Will and Grace, you didn’t have the L Word,” said Platt, an artist and a professor in the multimedia program here at Mac. “Not that these representations do us any favours, but there was just so little - especially representations of lesbians. I really wanted to make work that provided something else to identify with.”

One of Platt’s films, You Can’t Get There From Here, was recently featured in an exhibit at Brock University and describes what it was like for her to be 16, gay, and trying to figure out what that meant. “We see a lot of coming-of-age stories and I love them, but they’re tidy, and I don’t think coming of age is very tidy,” said Platt. Her story is anything but tidy – her sister was dying, the girl she loved liked guys, and everything just felt so intense. What describes being 16 better than the feeling of not knowing what’s important but still thinking everything is.

“A lot of my work is about trying to engage with the everyday and assumptions that we make that we don’t think about,” said Platt. Consider the purse, for example, which is the focus of a surreal film by Platt. At one point in the piece a tuft of hair appears in a purse that a lady is carrying, only to be franticly shoved into the bag’s depths. Purses appear totally harmless, but it’s kind of weird how much we associate them with being feminine without thinking about it. “Purses can emasculate butches; they’re like a threat to female masculinity,” said Platt, half joking and half serious.

Another one of her films, Long Time Coming, subverts the everyday (although, given the strike, it’s not really anymore) pillar of masculinity that hockey appears to be. One of the scenes replays a guy wiping down the Stanley cup, over and over. “That’s just rude, on purpose,” laughed Platt. “I love hockey, but it is so physical, and the men are on top of each other, writhing around. It was ripe for the picking, as they say.”

Sure, mocking hockey is funny, but there is a point – to ask why we think it’s okay for straight guys to be all over each other on ice, but in real life, not so much. “We have gendered notions of appropriate behaviour, and they’re limiting for everyone,” said Platt. “Queer culture has always been about not trying to just bring queer people into what’s normal, but to loosen up what normal means.”

In honour of Mac’s pride week, we present an ANDY that’s (mostly) full of articles about gender and sexuality.  Hopefully we’ve managed to loosen up normal at least a little.

By: Nolan Matthews

By: SJ Jany

As we near November 5 and the start of Mac’s annual Pride Week, you might have some questions about Pride. What is it exactly? When did it start? Isn’t it supposed to be in the summer? Do I really have to smother my entire body in glitter? All important questions.

Pride is usually held in the summer (specifically towards the end of June). This isn’t just because of the sunny weather; there is a more serious history behind the celebration of Pride. In June of 1969, members of the New York City gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans* plus (LGBT+) community engaged in a series of riots protesting police raids of the Stonewall Inn (a popular bar amongst members of the queer and trans* community) as well as general mistreatment of gender and sexual minorities throughout America.

The following year, a march through New York City known as the ‘Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day’ march was held to commemorate the riots and to increase visibility of gender and sexual minority groups. Since the Stonewall riots continue to be regarded as a crucial moment in the queer and trans* rights movements, this tradition of a yearly march has stuck. Throughout the world, Pride parades, marches, demonstrations, etc. are held at the end of June each year. Mac’s Pride is held in November simply due to scheduling issues; it wouldn’t be much fun to celebrate Pride when most students are home for the summer!

Now that we’ve looked at a super-brief history of Pride, you might still have some questions about why we continue to celebrate it. These aren’t easy questions to answer, since people have all sorts of different reasons for celebrating Pride. For some, Pride offers a chance to remember the sacrifices made by queer and trans* rights activists that enable us to live in a safer and more welcoming society. For others, it is an opportunity to celebrate identities which are still frowned upon by many in our society. Still others feel that Pride is a time to increase visibility and engage in activism. And some people are just looking for a fantastic party (glitter recommended, but not required)!

There are some people who feel that Pride is no longer needed. People see the advances we’ve made toward a more inclusive society and feel that our work is done. However, while awesome, the legalization of same sex marriage in Canada, prohibition of discrimination against trans* people in Ontario, etc. are not the end of the road. Members of the Canadian queer and trans* communities still face oppression and obstacles in daily life. As long as 73 per cent of Canadian LGBTQ+ youth report feeling unsafe at school and 18 per cent of trans* Ontarians are turned down for jobs because of their gender identity, we’ve still got a long way to go.

By: SJ Jany

As we approach McMaster’s annual Pride Week (November 5th-9th), you might be curious about what you can do to show your love and support for your queer and trans* friends. Good intentions are half the battle: here are some pointers on the ways in which you can be an ally to this fabulous and diverse community.

Tip 1: The golden rule The absolute number one tip to keep in mind here is this: be nice. Seriously, it’s often that simple! It’s okay if you don’t know all of the lingo and the history and the bajillion fancy flags; if you try your hardest to be kind and respectful to the people around you, you can’t go too far wrong!

Tip 2: Don’t assume It’s very common to assume that everyone around us is heterosexual and cisgender, since that’s what we’ve been told for a very long time! Part of being an ally is refraining from making these assumptions

Tip 3: Pronouns! Quick grammar lesson… Pronouns are those words we use (e.g. I, it, he, we, they) to take the place of nouns. Most of the time, we judge someone’s gender from their appearance and use the pronouns we think fit. However, in conjunction with Tip 2, to be an ally to those with diverse gender identities and expressions, it is important to find out someone’s preferred pronouns. Ask people (politely!) which pronouns they prefer and make sure you use them.

Tip 4: Respect privacy Although it’s totally cool to ask questions when you’re confused or uncertain about something, there are some topic areas that should be avoided unless you’ve specifically been given the green light by the individual with whom you’re chatting. For example it’s invasive and rude to ask people about their genitals (including genital surgeries) or about how they have sex.

Now you know a little bit more about being an ally to the queer/trans* community. Remember that part of being an ally to any group is taking the time to learn new things, so always keep your mind open to new information!