SPECTRUM News

Rainbow Pages Online Directory

We are pleased to announce the launch of our online Rainbow Pages directory!

This project was made possible by an extension of the 2SLGBTQ Community Capacity Fund grant administered by Women and Gender Equality Canada.

The Rainbow Pages exists as a community publication, printed annually. You can find the 2022 edition here, and the 2021 edition here. It now also exists as a searchable online database that can be updated at any time!

Visit the online directory at https://ourspectrum.com/rd/ 

Organizations can create an account and make updates to their listings at any time. We have created a tutorial video and written instructions to help people make use of the directory.

If you know a queer-owned, or queer-friendly business that should be listed in the Rainbow Pages please share the link!

Start exploring the directory today!

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Guest post

Guest post: stories like yours

This guest post was written by Cassidy Rae Proctor.

I recognized my reflection before I knew it was mine, in the pages of a beat up paperback on a library shelf.

As a child, I all but lived at the public library in my small town. I learned to read with Peter and Jane, watched borrowed VHS copies of Disney classics, and was a dedicated overachiever each year in the summer reading club. The moment I became a teen, anxious and looking for both a creative outlet and a sense of responsibility, I became an active and enthusiastic part of the library advisory group for young adults. And the week after I finished my final college exams, I began a career in public libraries that today has nearly reached the five year mark. My love for the library hasn’t changed over the years, but I have.

I first read Tamora Pierce’s Alanna: The First Adventure when I was around eleven years old. I had never found a character I identified as strongly with as Alanna of Trebond, a young girl disguising herself as a boy to become a knight. I had read books with fantastic female heroines before, but Alanna was different: as her story went on, it became clear to both me and her that she was a girl, but also kind of a boy, and also kind of both and neither. The idea of identity being personal and complicated, and that being yourself can be the thing that takes the greatest strength, resonated with me in a way I wouldn’t begin to understand for more than a decade. 

My journey to discovering myself would be a winding one that I would do my best to ignore for many years to come, but in a small town library, on an old shelf labeled JUVENILE FICTION, a little kid caught a glimpse of themselves for the first time.

The world and I have both changed since I was a kid, but the power of a community space that enthusiastically welcomes everyone, and provides free access to stories that allow people of all ages and backgrounds to feel seen, encouraged, educated and validated has remained, and continues to make public libraries an essential space and resource for our community.

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SPECTRUM News

Rainbow Family Drop-In

Early in 2021, SPECTRUM conducted some community surveys to help us better understand the needs of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities in Waterloo Region. One of the things we heard about was a need for programs for 2SLGBTQIA+ children, families, and parents. We connected with EarlyON | Waterloo Region to talk about how we might be able to partner to make something possible.

In April 2022, we did an additional community survey to help us understand what families would like to see in a new program. Using the information we gathered, we have created a new Rainbow Family Drop-In!

On October 29th we will run our first test group at the EarlyON | Roger Street (161 Roger Street, Waterloo) location. Join other 2SLGBTQIA+ children (aged 0-6), caring adults and families in play and exploration together from 9am-11am! 

EarlyON facilitators are available to provide support and information around early learning topics, community resources, programs and referrals in a play-based environment. Onsite supports will also include Beck, a YMCA of Three Rivers 2SLGBTQ+ Inclusion and Diversity Worker, and Mel, an Early Learning Child Care Navigator, funded by the Region of Waterloo.

This program requires pre-registration. Create your KEyON at https://www.keyon.ca/ and pre-register for each session. For KEyON account or registration support, please contact the EarlyON Admin team at 519.741.8585 x 3001 or earlyyearsinfo@ytr.ymca.ca

SPECTRUM has been providing Rainbow Diversity Training to all EarlyON staff and we are excited about what the future may hold for our partnership.

We hope to see you at the first session on October 29th and look forward to hearing from participants as we build this program.

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Awareness, Guest post

Guest Post: For Iran

By Midas Beglari

What is Happening in Iran?

On September 16, Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish women, was murdered by the morality police in Tehran, Iran; her death sparked an anti-government movement, referred to as “Woman, Life, Freedom”, in Iran and all around the world. As we share this message, Iranians inside the country are protesting in the streets, being shot at with military guns, and being abducted to unknown locations. The government has shut down internet access countrywide. Following over two weeks of protests in Iran that have left more than a hundred civilians dead (with ethnic minorities in Balochistan being especially hard-hit), the Iranian diaspora expressed their frustration with the Islamic Regime on Saturday, October 1st, the Global Day of Action for Iran, by attending demonstrations in over 150 cities across the globe. Iranian Ontarians rallied alongside over 50,000 protesters in Richmond Hill and London. Then, on October 2nd, the government attacked Sharif University, Iran’s most prestigious educational institution. Fully armed military forces with permission to open fire were sent inside the university while the doors were shut, trapping over 2,000 students, staff and faculty inside the university and its dorms. Innocent students leading a revolution for freedom were abused, arrested, and shot at by the Islamic Regime inside of their educational institution. This is just the beginning. 

Why are we taking a stand?

The biggest women’s rights movement is happening right now in Iran, but Iranians are fighting for so much more than just women’s rights. Over the past 43 years, the Islamic Regime has been systematically oppressing indigenous ethnic groups in Iran (especially the Kurds) by erasing their languages, religious identities, cultural expressions, and traditional ways of life. Right now, they are bombing Kurdish schools. LGBTQ+ people in Iran are denied basic human rights and still face the death penalty. Two queer and trans activists Sareh and Elham Choubdar are currently in prison on death row waiting for the International Court of Justice to vacate their sentences. Religious minorities, like the Bahaïs, experience extreme systematic oppression at the hands of a legal system that is built to exclude them to the point of denying them access to education.

If you care about women’s rights, 2SLGBTQ+ rights, racism, police brutality, and religious freedom, you should be standing in solidarity with Iran.

The Islamic Regime has turned the hijab into a symbol of oppression for Iranian women. When Iranian women take off and burn their hijabs, they are asking for the same thing Muslim women in the West are asking for: freedom of choice and bodily autonomy. Please be mindful of this context, and do not use Iranian women’s choice to take off the hijab as an excuse to be Islamophobic. 

How can we help?

-Share and Amplify Iranian Voices on Social Media and Use #MahsaAmini #womenlifefreedom

–Write to Canadian Officials (the template can be modified) 

-Attend Protests and Learn about Global Day of Action for Iran

–Sign the petition for Sareh & Elham LGBTQ+ Activist

-Bypass Internet Censorship by Using Snowflake

–Donate

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