Pride flag now waves at Humber North

Jun 21, 2017 | Life, News

By: Analia Sordi & Lucia Yglesias

Summer arrived at Humber College today with the LGBTQ+ community raising the Pride flag in front of the Learning Resource Commons.

Chris Whitaker, President of Humber College described the ceremony as a representation of inclusion and encouragement for all educators to support student diversity.

“We all have a responsibility as educators and certainly as a community that supports the values that we have at Humber and we have the responsibility to safeguard those values, practices and live those values every day,” said Whitaker.

While members of the community said Humber has taken great strides to create a welcoming learning environment, but there is still a demand for more resources.

Natalie Elisha, Student Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives Coordinator, calls for more action.

“I want to see more dialogue and action. I want to see more people listening to those with marginalized voices and to be brave enough to take actions and support them,” she said.

LGBTQ+ event resource assistant Kenny Dawkins, who identifies as trans non-binary and uses the pronouns ‘they or them’, spoke to Humber News about their experiences at Humber.

Dawkins originally enrolled in the Police Foundation program but switched into general arts after feeling their first-choice program was not inclusive and did not provide them with a healthy learning environment.

“As a staff member I feel safe but as a student I don’t because of the way classrooms are taught and because of the way some students are. Having professors not address discrimination can be really harmful to me and makes me not want to go to class,” said Dawkins.

Humber’s gender neutral washroom provides Dawkins a peace of mind of not having to worry about experiencing conflicts.

The LGBTQ+ community festivities will continue tomorrow with the social media initiative #DisplayYourPride.

CORRECTION: The original version of this article misgendered Kenny Dawkins. Humber News accepts that this was an egregious error, especially given the nature of the article. We apologize for the error.