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Learn to be an ally St. Patrick High School students running workshop at NWT Pride
Candace Thomson
Northern News Services
Published Friday, August 9, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
As part of the NWT Pride Festival's theme, Unite Us, two Yellowknife students are holding a workshop promoting discussion and education on how to be an ally.
NWT Pride Outreach co-ordinator Jacq Brasseur leads a workshop during last year's festival in August. - NNSL file photo |
In this case, an ally is a person who supports someone in the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) community.
Jacq Brasseur, community outreach co-ordinator for the festival, asked St. Patrick High School students Alysson McKee and Pippa Kennedy to run the workshop since seeing them hold supportive workshops in their school.
Kennedy said she was excited but nervous about the NWT Pride workshop.
"We've been asked to do things before that are important to us but there's an added pressure when you know you're being asked to do something by someone who's prominent in the community," she said.
Brasseur was part of last year's Pride team who managed to get a festival organized within three months, and said there are no worries about the students running the workshop.
"I trust them 1,000 per cent," said Brasseur.
The facilitated workshop will focus on helping people learn through discussion and involvement rather than lectures. Kennedy hopes that it will spread the message of supporting and loving other people, without being pushy.
"I think the biggest challenge is people not understanding why it's a big deal (to be an ally), and even if they're not necessarily being mean, they're just ignorant to knowing what's going on," Brasseur said. "It's a challenge communicating with some of those people."
Another challenge will be addressing the differences between being an ally in, and out of high school, according to Brasseur.
"In high school it's difficult enough to figure yourself out, what your priorities are and how to keep yourself safe," Brasseur explained. "It can be overwhelming to try and protect someone else and keep them safe, too."
Most of the challenges include realizing that being friends with an LGBTQ person doesn't necessarily mean the ally knows everything about their lifestyle and the challenges they face.
"Being a good ally sometimes means letting people speak for themselves," Brasseur said.
Other than the knowledge and satisfaction that comes with helping people, Brasseur said being an ally doesn't come with rewards, at least not with visible ones. Being an ally to someone whose sexual identity makes them a minority does, however, teach people valuable, transferable skills.
"You learn about empathy, you learn to be non-judgmental, and you make a lot of friends," said Brasseur.
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