Sparking discussion and action

As the coordinator of DalOUT, Dalhousie’s LGBTQ student society, Laura Chan believes their organization has an important role to play during International Women’s Week. As the recent graduate of Dal’s Music Performance program explains, the symptoms of a patriarchal society that lead to the oppression of women generally also ripple through the LGBTQ community in unique and specific ways.

“I feel as if we can’t help but intersect over International Women’s Week,” Laura says. “Sexism and misogyny play an active role in homophobia and transphobia and the discrimination that comes with those, so in some ways we can’t really separate ourselves.

“It’s something we’ve had in our minds for a long time and we wanted to be a part of it.”

Laura and DalOUT put their thoughts into action tonight (March 8) for their latest DalOUTTalks event. Introduced last fall, the DalOUTTalks invites members of Dal’s LGBTQ community to participate in organized-yet-informal discussions about various topics.

For tonight’s event, hosted at the Mona Campbell Building (Room 1107, 7:00 p.m.-9 p.m.) on International Women’s Day, the focus is on how misogyny and sexism manifest in — and impact — members of the LGBTQ community.

Learn more: Explore more International Women's Week events

A shared struggle

Rhiannon Makohoniuk is a second-year Social Work student, a Dal graduate with a degree in Gender Studies and Psychology and sits on the Dalhousie Student Union council as the LGBTQ representative, a position chosen by DalOUT. She has also occupied various executive roles at DalOUT in the past several years.

Rhiannon echoes Laura’s belief that the challenges all women face include and overlap with the obstacles LGBTQ people struggle to overcome.

“As an organization that does a lot of work around in the LGBTQ space, it often involves a lot of women and trans people who are really affected by misogyny, patriarchy, sexism on many different levels,” Rhiannon says. “You have queer women who face a lot of misogyny. You have bisexual women who are told they’re straight and just going through a phase. You see gay men who are taught that being effeminate is wrong.

“And misogyny affects trans people on deep levels. People gender appearances and reinforce stereotypes in a way that can cause damage.”

Laura says women and the LGBTQ community are part of a shared struggle against oppressive manifestations of masculinity. “Masculinity in itself is not a bad or harmful thing, but that the ways it manifests toxically and unhealthily are the things that harm us.”

Laura expects these and other issues will come to light at the DalOUTTalks event.

“There’s so much that can come from that topic, so I’m hoping it will be a productive and eye-opening conversation.”