Pride Month 2022

Happy Pride Month, friends!

At VC, we celebrate Pride 365.25 days a year.

Yes, we do believe in the value of having a month in which the history of the 2SLGBTQ+ movement, and the fight for recognition, respect and inclusion is highlighted; but we also believe it's essential to do this work every. single. day.

Your VC Pride Leader

Hello! My name is Adriana. As I spoke about in my post Gay Everyday, I am a proud queer person and I am also the leader of the VC team. Most of the content disseminated through VC's channels, especially about equity and inclusivity, comes from my head, heart, and life experience unless otherwise noted.

While I take educating myself on issues affecting my community very seriously, I want to be clear that I am only speaking for myself, and from my own perspective. I will always do my best to stand up for and with marginalized community members, and I will also make mistakes in doing this. When I do, I invite you to call me out on it - I promise I will reflect, learn and do better. 

With that, to kick off our Pride 2022 celebrations, I wanted to bring attention to a few things.

The Get REAL Movement

VC will be spotlighting a number of organizations we are donating to this month, starting with our favourite local non-profit, Get REAL. Get REAL was our 2021 Pride Month support recipient, and we've kicked off this year with another $500 donation to help support their important programming.

Please take a moment to learn more about Get REAL and what they do:

• Mini-documentary about work in schools
• Organizational Year End Impact Report 2021, which provides an overview most of our programming, minus A-Polish Gender Norms, The Hoodie Cam, Locals & Legends, and our Positive Space Group Kits, which are all recent programs since January 2022!

2SLGBTQ+

Over the years, VC's acronym use has evolved from LGBT to LGBTQ2S+ or LGBTQIA2S+. This year, we are using the acronym 2SLGBTQ+ to put the emphasis on inclusion for Two-Spirit community members. 

"Two-Spirit, a translation of the Anishinaabemowin term niizh manidoowag, refers to a person who embodies both a masculine and feminine spirit. Activist Albert McLeod developed the term in 1990 to broadly reference Indigenous peoples in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community. Two-Spirit is used by some Indigenous peoples to describe their gender, sexual and spiritual identity." (Michelle Filice, Two-Spirit)

Our use of the 2SLGBTQ+ acronym in reference to the LGBTTTQQIAAP community is intended to pay special respect to the people whose land we live on.

Allyship

What does it mean to be an ally? Our friend Corey Wakefield, who shared his thoughts with us on Visibility During Pride Month last year, has written an amazing piece on steps to being an Ally. 

Stay tuned as we look forward to sharing Corey's piece, and our accompanying design collaboration, very soon...

Rainbow Washing

Along with thoughts on allyship, we will be sharing our perspective on the widespread practice of "rainbow washing" or "pride washing". We do this not to call out or embarrass those who could be seen as guilty, but to encourage reflections and conversations about how this negatively affects progress towards true inclusion, and why it's important to be intentional about your support of the 2SLGBTQ+ community. 

"Rainbow-washing allows people, governments, and corporations that don't do tangible work to support LGBTQ+ communities at any other time during the year to slap a rainbow on top of something in the month of June and call it allyship." The Problem With the 'Rainbow-Washing' of LGBTQ+ Pride

Community Highlights

There are SO MANY amazing 2SLGBTQ+ athletes and organizers who are part of our community, and we're excited to share some of their perspectives with you over the coming weeks – and beyond.

Stay tuned, and thanks for your ongoing support of VC.

Adriana

Adriana Withers
CEO & Founding Partner
VC Ultimate Inc.

Read more about our Pride 365 mentality in our Equity blog section.