Algonquin College and the Students’ Association are asking students to ‘Show Your Pride.’
June was designated Pride Month at the college. Staff and students can show what pride means to them by uploading a video or a painting on the college website: Algonquincollege.com/diversity/pride/ .
“Normally, we do Algonquin marches in the pride parade. We take part in pride-related events in many different ways. This year we have to rethink new things and do it differently. Show Your Pride campaign is a new idea this year for pride month,” said Quinn Blue, the Wellness and Equity Centre co-ordinator.
The event is an opportunity for everyone in the campus community to show off their pride by submitting a photo or a three-second video showing their pride in whatever ways it means to them.
“We are looking for an opportunity for the campus community to come together in an effort to celebrate pride as a group,” said Blue.
The submissions are going to be shared with the whole AC community, and the Students’ Association is going to have a few gifts to give away to thank participants.
“We have received a bunch of videos and photographs. I don’t know how many submissions, but we want more because this is about a community showing and celebrating together,” said Sarah Gauen, Inclusion and Diversity Specialist.
“Go to https://www.algonquincollege.com/diversity/pride/‘ upload (a) photo or video, it can be anything. We have received pictures of people with their families, artwork. Indigenous music has been submitted . . . We are wide open (to) whatever this means to people. We want to see it. We want to celebrate it. We are going to be sharing all the results at the end of this month, in a big compilations video . . . ,” said Gauen.
“The event was actually a perfect replacement for what they usually do. We couldn’t meet the LGBTQ community face-to-face, but it was a good platform to meet and see how open our college is. They are part of us, and we are all equal,” said Aastha Lambha, an Algonquin college student and a participant in this event