°·.Sub Par Thoughts: Happy Pride Month to All & Antihomophobia All Year Long!

Given that it is, — no, check that, was, — the opening weekend of Winnipeg's Pride Week festivities this past weekend — "Pride" for those of you unclear is the annual celebration of being alive for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, two-spirited and otherwise queer folk and their friends and supporters — I should probably honour the occasion with something appropriately queer-positive here.

It's not like I got out this weekend and had any fun. The computer made sure of that.

(Oh, who am I kidding anyway?! Anyone who knows me knows I'm basically agoraphobic, terrified of crowds, hate parades and can't stand loud parties. Only the desperation to flight fueled by fighting for the last 72+ hours with this obstinate silicon beastie would make braving Pride celebrations seem something desirable. Well, that and the prospect to see a few old friends and visit the book tent and see the tchotchelekhs on display this year. And that funny word is Yiddish, BTW, not gay code for anything untoward).

Anyway, back to the queer-positive thing.

Since I was fighting away earlier with the computer just trying to submit my late marketing assignment — promoting library services for queer youth at a slightly fictionalised and idealised version of the Rainbow Resource Centre Library — I had it in mind that I should probably include something in the blog (besides the eye candy in the header image) that would help out some queer youth.

Of course, all of this is really due to our instructor Gail Shackleton's endorsement of FaceBook. (Thanks for that introduction, Gail: I am now completely addicted, although I understand there's a FaceBook Group for FaceBook Addiction called FaceBook Anonymous ... will have to look into that.) In any case, I spent several of the increasingly few hours this monstrous computer cooperated in the past week poking about FaceBook (not in the FB sense mind you), seeing who's out there.

And lo and behold I came across the profile of a handsome young lad (no smarmy thoughts, please) by the name of Jonny Sopotiuk — who even had a guest appearance on our local Breakfast Television show, though he did seem a tad bleary-eyed, as I would have been if I had to get up at 6:00 a.m. to be there (a detail noted from his FB status, BTW) — and young Jonny had just been hired as the Youth Liaison summer student for the Rainbow Resource Centre! (His "dream job" selon his FB profile. Congrats, Jonny! If you like it, may it last forever!)

And this reminded me of my years there as volunteer library coordinator. And the youth I had worked with and enjoyed helping then, as well as the queer youth I encounter in Seven Oaks schools these days.

So inspired by this circuitous path of logic (let's pretend), I dug up a sheet that I had prepared for a presentation way back in Red River College days, something that I had hoped would help inspire my classmates then towards a little more sensitivity and tolerance. Here's hoping this may help some of you ... and thus some of the queer youth who are in the libraries around you, whether you know it or not.

Since I haven't figured out how to link a PDF or DOC file yet (if that is possible; probably it is), I'll just have to rely on good-fashioned typing to relate

WHAT YOU CAN DO ...

As an individual straight person, there are lots of things you can do to demonstrate your opposition to homophobia, heterosexism and other discrimination against queer people.
You don't have to be an activist or in-your-face confrontationalist to help change the world.

Here are 10 simple things you can do
to fight hatred everyday:
1. Make no assumptions about a person's sexuality or sexual orientation.

2. Have something gay-related and queer positive visible in your office or workspace.
A "Straight But Not Narrow" postcard from PFLAG is ideal!
A fridgie magnet like the one to the right works great on a file cabinet or metal door or window casement

3. Validate others' feelings about their sexual identity.
Something as simple as thanking someone who has just come out to you for sharing who they are and trusting you has an enormous impact on self-esteem

4. Respect people's confidences. (Outing is outlawed!)

5. Challenge homophobia — immediately, sincerely, consistently.
You don't have to put yourself at risk or try to cause a scene,
but bigots, like bugs, can only keep buzzing when no one stands up to swat them!

6. Educate yourself! Read a book on queer life!
Try starting with a biography of someone you admire who you just
found out is queer.

Or, if you are a cinema fan, try a film: there are hundreds now. Many straight librarians are lucky enough to have access to a fantastic book, actually written for queer youth, but of relevance to anyone who works with them or supports them in their struggles. It is called Free Your Mind. Check to see if it is in your collection and add at least a part of it to your summer reading list!

7. Learn about and refer others to community organisations or groups.
One straight librarian in the U.S. even put bookmarks with contact information for her community's queer youth group in books in her public library! (God bless the ALA!) In after session discussion at the Manitoba Library Association Conference back in 2000, our then CLA president remarked that she thought this was an excellent practice, in keeping with the best policies on intellectual freedom that the CLA consistently tries to promote and support!

8. Confront heterosexism in others and in yourself: start by being sensitive to your own language-use.
Words do hurt and can make people feel excluded, even if you don't mean to.

9. Encourage adoption and enforcement of anti-discrimination policies explicitly including sexual orientation in schools and other group environments.
Make it clear that you don't want your kids or their friends to be victimised by any form of intolerance.

10. Be a role model of acceptance by being visibily supportive.
(Hey, this one is easy! If you try to do any of the above, you've already got it down!)