June marks Pride Month and is a chance for those who identify within the LGBTQ2S+ community, as well as allies, to come together to celebrate acceptance, promote equality and help increase visibility. However, this year’s celebrations will be a bit different. As a result of COVID-19, the city of Toronto has cancelled the annual Pride Parade, something that many look forward to attending. Centennial has continually participated in the parade each year and has hosted many Pride related activities. With the big question of what would happen to Pride Month celebrations this year, Centennial’s pride committee came together to create something that would still foster inclusivity and celebration, but through a computer screen.
Manny Rodrigues, Chair of the pride committee at Centennial, has organized many of Centennial’s Pride initiatives, including the Centennial Comes Out campaign. He has been with the College for almost six years and it was four years ago he started this campaign along with Meza Daulet and Onar Usar, which has since received awards and numerous submissions. This created a push for more LGBTQ2S+ activities within the College, which resulted in Centennial’s Pride Picnic. Manny says, “We already had the Pride picnic the first year that we started Centennial Comes Out but it was still very low-key. It was a day where we invited community partners over and gave out great stuff. In the following year, we invited drag queens to come so it became more of an event, we had students perform, and it was more of a show. We still had the community partners come out, but we saw this as more of an opportunity to do something fun for the community and have a fun event. In the following year, we did even better; we had double the community partners join us, we had two drag queens, and just a lot of support from the community and the college as well.” Manny notes that it was a collective effort from everyone involved that made these events so special.
Manny mentions that Centennial President, Dr. Craig Stephenson, has been such a big supporter with all of the Pride campaigns Centennial has organized. He says, “Craig Stephenson is phenomenally supportive of the LGBT initiatives at the College. It’s something he’s very passionate about as an ally. He marches in the parade with his son and his wife and us, and he is really an ally and an advocate for the community. It’s not lip service because of his role. This is something he is really passionate about and has been even back home in the UK as well.” Manny says that Centennial is the only educational institution that is at the beginning of the parade with large corporations like TD and OLG, and that is just one of the ways that set Centennial apart as a leader in LGBTQ2S+ awareness and inclusivity.
With COVID-19 disrupting plans for Pride, Manny describes that the Pride committee was feeling a bit discouraged. He says, “The pride committee and I had a meeting at the beginning of April and everyone was just not feeling it. Everyone was like ‘I don’t know, everything is going to be cancelled’ and to be honest I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do anything either. We decided to take a month break and meet again at the beginning of May to see how we were feeling and see if we wanted to do something.”
Two days before their next meeting, Manny had been receiving numerous emails from students about Pride, but one in particular stood out from an international student. “She said in her email that she’s gay and because of COVID-19 she has been struggling a lot financially and she was reaching out to me because my name is on a lot of the LGBT initiatives in the College, so she assumed I would be the person to talk to. She basically said, ‘I need financial help and support, is there extra help that the college has provided?’ To my knowledge, we have two LGBT specific scholarships that students can apply for but you have to apply for them at the beginning of the year and the money doesn’t come to you until that following April and so for this student who needed immediate needs, there was really nothing that I could really offer her. I connected her to student services to see if she could apply for other bursaries or the COVID relief fund, but I just felt really awful. There are people here that are in different situations that really need some extra support.” That is when Manny knew he had to do something.
When he pitched the idea to the committee, he knew he wanted to do something virtual and really incorporate voices from the community. Luckily, everyone really liked the idea. He says, “My crazy little mind wanted to do something fun and exciting and we have such a supportive group of people that honestly this wouldn’t be possible without, so it makes it fun and collaborative. We had that initial meeting and then I reached out to people to test the waters; I sent an email to Craig and he thought it was a great idea and he said I have his support.” The Pride committee met every week to delegate tasks and reach out to people to see who would like to be involved, and that is when the #ShowYourPride campaign started. They received many submissions and it will be such a great feature shown at the event.
“Everyone at the College has been very supportive and it’s a great place to work. As far as I know and from my connections, I don’t think any other institution is doing a virtual Pride event, so again, Centennial is taking that lead of being agile and pivoting toward something that can bring our students and community together,” says Manny.
The Virtual Watch Party will take place on June 25 at 12:00 pm EST and will be available through Centennial’s networks. Manny says, “I’m looking forward to showing everyone what we’ve put together for this virtual watch-party. There’s a lot of surprises and with the help of alumni, this is going to be a fundraiser. On the week of June 22nd to the 25th, the week we are holding this event, all the money donated will go to LGBTQ+ students who can apply.”
We hope everyone can attend this virtual event! Happy Pride!
Happy #PrideMonth! Join our #ShowYourPrideCC challenge and participate in our upcoming Virtual Pride Watch Party. Find out more 🌈
— Centennial College (@CentennialEDU)
By Alexandra Few