June 20th, 2022
For Pride Month 2022, we are excited to share profiles of 2SLGBTQIA+ community members as a part of the series 2SLGBTQIA+ and living in Waterloo Region.
These 2SLGBTQIA+ community members share about their identities, passions, and lived experiences. These profiles offer advice to students, hope for the future of education and what it means to be queer.
Image Credit: Bangishimo
Maddie Resmer ᑫᑫᑰᓐᔅ ᓃᒥᑦ ᓈᒃᐌᔮᑉ
Artist and Community Advocate
Tell us about yourself
“I identify as Queer and Two-Spirit! For centuries prior to colonization, many Indigenous nations across Turtle Island celebrated people who did not fall within the gender binary. These people would hold significant roles and responsibilities within their communities, but as colonialism and forced assimilation expanded, these once celebrated people became shamed and misunderstood. In the 1990’s, many Indigenous communities adopted the pan-Indian term ‘Two-Spirit’ to identify modern Indigenous people who fulfilled this traditional role – myself included!”
What’s the best thing about being queer?
“The people! I swear, my friend groups became about a million times cooler after coming out! I feel so fortunate to have found the greatest friends and communities since coming out that truly celebrate and appreciate what it means to be queer, and I think the solidarity that many other Black, Indigenous, and/or racialized queer folks hold for one another is such a powerfully unique and beautiful thing.”
What advice would you offer to 2SLGBTQIA+ identifying youth?
“There is a place for us all here, sometimes it just takes time for our bodies and spirits to remember that. We occupy a system that was not built for 2SLGBTQIA+ folks. It’s okay to feel confused and lost within a system that was not built for you, it’s normal.
That being said, old systems are being deconstructed and rebuilt with hopeful futures in mind, and it will be the youth who inherit this change! We are building a future in which all can be fully, authentically, unapologetically themselves, and you are part of that bright future.”
What advice would you offer to non-2SLGBTQIA+ youth who want to create a safer space?
“I believe that the first step in advocacy and allyship work is recognizing the power and privilege that you hold in any particular space, and understanding how you can utilize those advantages to benefit the 2SLGBTQIA+ people around you. Consider the ways that you can advocate for your 2SLGBTQIA+ peers on a day-to-day basis. Correct people using incorrect pronouns, avoid assuming heteronormativity (i.e. ‘What do your Mom and Dad do for work?’), and use your social privilege to speak up against homophobia and transphobia whenever you see or hear it.”
Did you have a favourite school staff member growing up, and why?
“I did! I was fortunate enough to go to one of the only highschools in the region that, at that time, offered an Indigenous Studies’ course, and as the only Indigenous student in the class, she did a great job of ensuring I felt supported and heard within that space. She helped me get in contact with local Elders from the community here in Waterloo Region that I could talk to after class, and helped me feel safe at school. She is a very cool woman, and I feel lucky to have been her student.”
Teneile Warren
Equity and Inclusion Officer
Tell us about yourself
“Black, Nonbinary and Queer. For me, Queerness exists and means existing outside of the binaries and structures, and those limiting, monolithic definitions of identity. It holds my Blackness and my gender. It is more than a sexual orientation; it is my identity and it is both political and personal.”
What’s the best thing about being queer?
“Being queer is beautiful. When you have gone on a journey to both internally and externally show the world you are worthy, you free yourself. The queer community is magical and we share something that only we will ever understand.”
What advice would you offer to 2SLGBTQIA+ identifying youth?
“Take each moment as it comes. Don’t get lost in the stereotypes. There are absolutely an infinite number of ways to be 2SLGBTQIA+. I promise you that you are not alone in this world. There is a community out there waiting to embrace and love you exactly as you are.”
What advice would you offer to non-2SLGBTQIA+ youth who want to create a safer space?
“Assume nothing. Don’t assume your school is like the one in that TV show where everyone seems to be included. Challenge the system. It’s never just a joke. Be an advocate. This is how safety happens.”
Did you have a favourite school staff member growing up, and why?
“Miss Hunter or Auntie Jackie. She loved me, challenged me and protected me. She invested in me and my friends and the funny thing is I was so afraid of her when I started high school. I can’t tell you when it changed, but one day she became Auntie Jackie and I wanted to make her proud.”
Ash Kreider
Marketing Professional, Writer, Artist, and Activist
Tell us about yourself
“I tell queer folks that I am transgender non-binary.
To people who aren’t queer, I explain it like this: If the options are man and woman, then I am a bicycle. Or a unicorn. Or a rocket ship. When the world says there are only two options, pick one, I say there is an entire constellation of choices beyond these two. What I am today might not be what I am tomorrow, but I will never be just a man or woman. Those binary labels could never contain what I am.”
What advice would you offer to 2SLGBTQIA+ identifying youth?
“Listen to your feelings (about gender, about orientation, about whatever) and don’t waste time pretending to be something you’re not! The only person who gets to decide who you are and how you experience (or don’t experience) love is you! We only have so much time on this planet. Don’t waste precious time pretending to be a gender you’re not, or pretending not to love who you love, because that’s time you’ll never get back.
Be who you are, and don’t apologize for it. Some people may not accept that, but there are so very many people who will love you for being exactly who you are.”
What advice would you offer to non-2SLGBTQIA+ youth who want to create a safer space?
“Language matters. When people say queerphobic things, speak up! You never know which of your friends is queer and too afraid to tell anyone, and staying silent will make them feel that you aren’t safe to be honest with about who they really are.
That means saying ‘not cool’ when people say things like ‘that’s so gay’, or when they make fun of kids for being gender non-conforming. Speaking up can be really hard and scary, but imagine how hard and scary it is for queer kids who hear those things when no one around them says anything to challenge it!”
Did you have a favourite school staff member growing up, and why?
“My experience of education in a conservative region of the United States was that teachers were not safe and that I should interact with them as little as possible. All of my positive experiences of education happened in extracurriculars outside of the school system.”
TK Pritchard
Executive Director – SHORE Centre
Tell us about yourself
“I am a queer/trans/non-binary person, which I think is for me best described by a quote from author Maia Kobabe in Gender Queer: ‘Some people are born in the mountains, while others are born by the sea. Some people are happy to live in the place they were born, while others must make a journey to reach the climate in which they can flourish and grow. Between the ocean and the mountains is a wild forest. That is where I want to make my home.’”
What’s the best thing about being queer?
“For me it feels really beautiful to not feel restricted. Being queer has allowed me to flow with my identity as it has shifted and changed over the years. I feel a real openness about who I have been, who I am and who I may be. I also love the community and relationships queerness has allowed me to experience and be supported by.”
What advice would you offer to 2SLGBTQIA+ identifying youth?
“There can be a lot of pressure to have all the answers about your identity. Give yourself the space and time you need. You don’t owe answers to anyone and no one gets to tell you who you are. You deserve so much love, care and support.”
What advice would you offer to non-2SLGBTQIA+ youth who want to create a safer space?
“Don’t assume who in your life is or isn’t queer or trans. Speak up when people make homophobic or transphobic jokes and help advocate for queer and trans rights at school and in your community. Try to do some learning on your own and don’t put all the work on your queer or trans classmates to educate everyone.”
Did you have a favourite school staff member growing up, and why?
“I had two elementary teachers, Ms. Boate and Ms. Sutherley, at my school in Barrie, ON who really cared about our lives and interests. I felt like they would both support any of us, no matter what was happening in our lives and they always took extra time to chat and check in. I didn’t understand my identity at the time but I feel sure if I had that I could have talked to them about it and been cared for.”
2SLGBTQIA+ and living in Waterloo Region
This is part two of our 2SLGBTQIA+ and living in Waterloo Region series for Pride Month 2022. Stay tuned for part three, and check out part one of 2SLGBTQIA+ and living in Waterloo Region.