To help celebrate the inaugural Dalhousie Pride Week, Dal News is sharing a series of perspectives on Pride from across the university community.
Name: Lara Lewis
Where are you from: (Hometown) Kingston, NS
What do you do at Dal?: Fountain School of Performing Arts grad, King's journalism student.
What does Pride mean to you?
Pride is an unending battle for equality and justice for the oppressed.
Can you share experiences or memories that stand out from past Pride events?
Being harassed by cis gay males at a corporate pride event last year. It was a wakeup call to the pinkwashed reality of corporate pride.
Dal is hosting its own Pride Week for the first time. What are your thoughts on this?
If Dal Pride is something that a community is doing, I think that’s awesome. If it’s something that’s used as a marketing ploy, that’s very problematic. Honest efforts should be made to include women, trans people, and BIPOC people in central positions of planning to alleviate white, male, cis-centric culture at Dal.
How are you celebrating and participating in Dalhousie Pride Week, Halifax Pride Week and/or Truro Pride this year?
This year I was in a show for Queer Acts, speaking frankly about sex as a trans woman. I've co-facilitated a Rad Pride writer's circle, and will be speaking at the Dyke and Trans March.
Why is it important for LGBTQ+ -identified people and LGBTQ+ allies to support and participate in Pride Week?
Our fight is not nearly over. Stand in solidarity with your siblings and remember that if your activism isn't intersectional it's useless. Pride is a very public opportunity to make your demands heard.
What makes Pride Week different or special this year?
This year the violence that exists towards our communities is in the public mind — it is a way to help people listen.
Learn more about Dalhousie Pride Week at dal.ca/showyourpride.
More profiles
- Michael Davies-Cole (Law student, Sociology alum)
- Jasmine Walsh (assistant vice-president, Human Resources)
- Lindsey Gillard (master's student in Aquaculture)
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