By Gianni Colavecchia
Ryerson Mechanical Engineering student James Duff knows ignorance towards homosexuals on campus can make life difficult for gay students.
This is why he and other BGALOR co-ordinators created the Lesbian, Bisexual and Gay Survival kit for Ryerson students.
“People need to know they’re wanted,” Duff said.
The kit tries to help students so they can survive sexually and spiritually. But it also tries to educate heterosexuals about gay issues.
Each package includes a map of safe places on campus, coupons for Toronto businesses that are gay-positive, Rye’s harassment policy and an anti-gay bashing phone number.
Duff, who had 400 kits printed and distributed, said they are essential.
Both Duff and fellow BGALOR co-ordinator Sue Nielsen have been in uncomfortable situations before. A man was arrested after he threatened BGALOR members last year.
Such acts dictate the need for the kit which confronts “the homophobia that affects us everyday in classes and hallways,” Nielsen said.
People at Ryerson are fighting such hate. BGALOR recently helped the harassment prevention and security services to collect data about hate-motivated incidents at Rye.
Another co-ordinator, Adrienne Blenman, talked of the president’s Advisory Committee on Homophobia, a body looking at anti-gay incidents at Ryerson. This group will soon read a report on assaults on campus including an incident which a man used a phone in the Olive Baker Lounge to hit an openly gay woman.
Despite the severity of these incidents and desperate need for action, Nielsen had difficulty getting city politicians to adequately help with the kit. The city took more than a month to supply fewer anti-homophobia posters and buttons to the kits than asked for.
The packages can be picked up in room A467.
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