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News

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Amneet Mann / News Editor Henry Tran / Assistant News Editor

February 2, 2018 news@the-peak.ca

EDUCATING EDUCATORS

Positive Space Network fills in the queer knowledge gap for SFU faculty The workshops are held by Out on Campus and aim to increase queer knowledge among SFU faculty Amneet Mann News Editor SFU staff and faculty have been receiving a crash course on the LGBTQ+ community and issues thanks to Out on Campus’ Positive Space Network Program. As SFU’s LGBTQ+ advocacy group, Out on Campus has developed an hourlong workshop in which they work with SFU faculty and staff to build up a greater knowledge of the queer community, starting from ground zero up to current issues and techniques on navigating what can be sensitive topics with students.

The idea of the Positive Space Network workshops was originally introduced a few years ago as a series of three-hour long sessions aimed at SFU students. Last summer, however, the workshop was re-worked as an hour-long program to make it more accessible.

The sessions begin by laying the basic groundwork required to understand the LGBTQ+ culture, and then move into specifics depending on which department is in attendance. Kyle McCloy, Out on Campus' current volunteer and program co-ordinator, outlined the general structure of the workshops: “They always start with [. . .] basics, like ‘what does LGBTQ mean? Why is it important to talk about this in the context of SFU and SFU students?’”

After the basics, the workshops are more tailored towards what the staff has requested or identified as issues in their department. McCloy recounted a workshop he’d done with Student Central, a department that oversees campus tours, which had specifically asked on how to deal with parents on tours who make homophobic comments. In a workshop with Student Services, which provides a large range of services such as academic advising and facilitating co-op placements, staff were interested in how to conduct better face-to-face interactions with queer students in the context of preferred gender pronouns.

The content shared in the Positive Space Network workshops is an accumulation of knowledge that Out on Campus has built up throughout the years substantiated by the most recent statistics, surveys, and research. As someone who has worked in the field of active bystander training and creating inclusive spaces, McCloy brings both his professional and personal experience to share.

“There’s always a range of knowledge,” said McCloy. “Some folks are well-versed with everything to do with the queer community. Some folks have never even gotten a definition of what

Out on Campus is SFU’s LGBTQ+ advocacy group. transgender means.” To bring everyone up to speed together, the workshops begin at square one and McCloy makes sure to emphasize that “there are no dumb questions.”

“One person asked what it was like with gay dating apps. So it’s sort of like asking those questions that people are afraid to ask because sometimes it’s awkward to ask or admit that you don’t know what something is.”

When asked for his perspective on SFU’s environment

towards gender and sexual diversity, McCloy responded, “Since I was a student here, it’s definitely improved.” He noted the university’s effort to construct more gender-neutral washrooms, the inclusion of gender programs on intake forms, and students being given the option to change their gender on their official record. But he also noted that, while policy changes are coming down the pipeline, they’re doing so fairly slowly.

A major concern McCloy has heard from students is pronoun

Maxwell Gawlick / The Peak usage in classrooms. He also brought up SFU’s social culture, which he admitted can sometimes be a hard place to build social connections in.

“If people feel disconnected from their community, it’s a continuous question of ‘where do I find people like me?’” To that end, McCloy and the rest of the staff and volunteers of Out on Campus are working to make their space, and the rest of SFU, a safe place for the LGBTQ+ community to find each other and connect.

INCLUSIVE SPACES

Community program to launch for LGBTQ+ refugees Two SFU professors are providing consultation for the new program Amneet Mann News Editor Two SFU professors are teaming up with DIVERSEcity, a not-forprofit agency located in Surrey dedicated to offering services to the city’s multicultural population, to create more inclusive spaces for refugees identifying as LGBTQ+.

DIVERSEcity has been playing a leading role in helping refugees get settled in Surrey and Canada.

Dr. Sharalyn Jordan, an assistant professor in SFU’s faculty of education, and associate professor Jen Marchbank have been providing program development and evaluation consultation for the nonprofit’s new pilot program aimed at providing a safe space for sexual or gender diverse newcomers.

The program originated as a response to findings in a report conducted by students in SFU’s department of gender, sexuality, and women’s studies in collaboration with DIVERSEcity. The report found that resources are non-existent for LGBTQ+ refugees in Surrey.

The new program currently under development is expected to launch around late February. Services that the program will be providing for sexual and gender diverse newcomers include information on mental health services, health care, HIV care, guest speakers on the topic of engaging in a job search, and handling interview

questions, in addition to simply being a place of connection and a way refugees can get involved in the community.

The program hopes to bridge the gap between LGBTQ+ newcomers and the resources available to them in their new community, which may not always be well-known.

“An example that Jen and I talked about is, where do you go if you are both queer and Muslim to pray?” said Jordan. “There is a gender equity prayer group, but it’s not wellknown. Another example is what kind of services are available for single queer parents in Farsi?”

“It’s important to recognize that even though in many ways Canada has legal protections to help people have human rights and equality, the

reality is that Canadian cities are often a very confusing mix of open acceptance and celebration of rights to the realities or violence and hate and stigma particularly for people who are gender fluid or gender diverse and racialized.”

That being said, Jordan expressed optimism for Canada’s growing culture of inclusivity and sensitivity towards topics of gender and sexual diversity. As an example, she pointed to Canada’s restructuring of guidelines relating to gender and sexually diverse refugee claimants.

In previous practices, a great weight was placed on LGBTQ+ refugees’ responses to invasive questions on their sexual lives and sexual practices in order to prove themselves to be gender or sexually diverse. “People were denied refugee status because they weren’t credible as gay

because they didn’t recognize the rainbow flag,” said Jordan.

In May 2017, however, the immigration and refugee board launched a new set of guidelines specifically around sexual orientation, gender identity, and sexual expression as it relates to refugee claimants. Jordan was involved in the consultation for those guidelines, and in the training of workers who would evaluate the refugee claimants based on these new guidelines.

“What we are now seeing is a far more respectful and sensitive approach,” she said. “One that is trauma-informed, one that understands that sexual and gender identity varies from culture to culture.”

Canada is moving towards a general understanding, Jordan assessed, that “there is no one standard on how to be LGBTQ+.”

With files from CBC News.

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Amneet Mann / News Editor Henry Tran / Assistant News Editor

News

news@the-peak.ca

Henry Tran Assistant News Editor

Henry Tran Assistant News Editor

Women’s Centre We provide services to students of all genders, including : - Crisis referrals & peer support - A free feminist library (no fines!)

- Free menstrual & safer sex supplies - Food support

- Two garden plots - Variety of programming all year round - 24/7 safer space for self-identified women

Come and visit us, we are located in the Rotunda between the Gym and the Maggie Benston Centre!

The SFSS Women's Centre has been providing services to students since 1974!

Learn more about us at sfss.ca/wctr and follow us on Facebook @sfsswomenscentre & Twitter @sfsswomensctr

Opinions

Grace Rose Peak Associate

Zach Siddiqui / Opinions Editor

February 2, 2018 opinions@the-peak.ca

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Opinions

Umer Altaf Peak Associate

Eva Zhu Staff Writer

Zach Siddiqui / Opinions Editor

opinions@the-peak.ca

Fun times at SFPIRG!

At SFPIRG, we’re excited by: • informed and ongoing consent • open dialogue between partners • sexual and gender diversity • Reproductive Justice • Disability Justice and accessibility • also, all of these upcoming events and opportunities at SFPIRG!

The Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group (SFPIRG) is a student-funded, student-led independent student society at SFU, engaging students and community in social and environmental justice. To learn more and to get involved, visit us online at www.sfpirg.ca!

10 Arts

Alex Bloom / Arts Editor

arts@the-peak.ca

work has been featured openly in the media since at least the 1950s, but we haven’t necessarily gotten better at portraying it in the last 70 or so years. Some shows and movies still feed into negative stereotypes and only portray a very small sliver of what sex work is. Thankfully, we’re slowly starting to see better and better portrayals of sex work and sex workers in the cinema and on TV.

NOTICE OF STUDENT ELECTION – SPRING 2018 CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES Students have an opportunity to become involved in the governance of SFU by submitting a nomination form for positions on Senate, Board of Governors, Senate Graduate Studies Committee, and SFU Community Trust.

Committee Senate

Positions Term of Office Sixteen students, elected by June 1, 2018 to and from the student body, with May 31, 2019 at least one student elected from each faculty and at least three undergraduate and three graduate students.

Board of Governors

One undergraduate student, elected by and from the undergraduate student body.

Senate Graduate Studies Committee (SGSC)

One graduate student, elected by and from the graduate student body.

Four graduate students (2 regular, 2 alternate), elected by and from graduate students.

Information Senate meets once a month and is responsible for the academic governance (all matters that bear on teaching and research) of the University. www.sfu.ca/senate.html

June 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019

The Board of Governors meets six times a year and is responsible for the business (property, revenue and policies) of the University. www.sfu.ca/bog.html

June 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019

SGSC meets once a month and is responsible for making recommendations to Senate concerning graduate programs, courses, regulations and policies. www.sfu.ca/senate/senatecommittees/sgsc.html

Nomination Deadline: Tuesday, February 6, 2018 @ 4:00 pm Campaign Period: February 7, 2018 to February 23, 2018 Online Voting: February 20, 2018 to February 23, 2018 Nomination Forms and Candidate Info: http://www.sfu.ca/students/elections/students.html Questions may be directed to the Electoral Officer, Senate & Academic Services at 778-782-3168 or senate@sfu.ca.

Arts

February 5, 2018

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12 Sports

Andrew Ringer / Sports Editor

sports@the-peak.ca

Sports

February 5, 2018

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Zoe Vedova Peak Associate

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14 Humour

Janis McMath / Humour Editor

humour@the-peak.ca

W RI T T EN BY W I N O NA YO U N G , P E A K A S S O C I AT E

DUMB I DIOTS

IL LU S T RAT E D BY RESLUS

Humour

February 5, 2018

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Written by JoJo, Lesbian Studies PhD

Straight Man Symposium Demystifying all sorts of topics which are cause for alarm in the Straight Man™ community such as how do lesbians exist?

Is this mic on? Yes? Alright fantastic!

Hello! And welcome, welcome — everyone, please come on in. Find yourself a seat.

Let me start by expressing just how thrilled I am that you all decided to attend the firstever annual symposium on Life without Straight Men™. I urge you all to remain calm, I completely understand that hearing such a phrase can be uncomfortable (and even mildly arousing) but please don’t be scared off. The goal of today is to demystify all sorts of topics which are cause for alarm in the Straight Man™ community. We will begin with perhaps the most speculated upon concept of this genre: how do lesbians exist?

The very idea has been known to send men into self-defensive rages as their imagined purpose on this planet is threatened by the possibility that a woman could replace them.

We can safely deduce that the majority of you Straight Men™ here today harbour an agonizing fear that you may one day stumble upon two women who may be engaging in intercourse or a romantic relationship and you’ll fail to detect it. Since you obviously know everything about women already, this can be a crippling thought – however, there is no need to fear any longer.

Through the amassment of scientific research on this subject, leading experts in

Illustrated by Cora Fu

the field have complied enough data to create strict, incontestable criteria that they agree all lesbians are bound to by the very laws of nature. If you believe you’ve entered a room where lesbians reside in man-less pleasure — DON’T PANIC — simply check for the following things: Three cats – at minimum. Perched at various heights, cognizant, unblinking.

12 plants – at minimum. Enough succulents to constitute an Arizonan conservatory.

Low lighting – Sins are better in the dark.

Lighting must come from a variety of haphazardly pinned-up string lights and one or two dominant salt lamps.

There will be no bras strewn anywhere on the floor – lesbians biologically reject bras, everyone knows that.

A gay mandate – A piece of artwork which will give you the overwhelming urge to ask how high the artist must’ve been to come up with that ridiculous thing.

Patchouli – dear God, the patchouli. If you are a Straight Man™, you are going to need to breathe through a respirator or you will pass out.

If you can count off five or six of these seven points, you have reason to suspect you’ve entered a Lesbian Lair. The ability to

COMIC -the rolling burrito- by Talha Qadir

identify the terrain is pertinent for living in a lesbian-filled society — however, a bigger, darker concern lurks beneath . . . How large is the threat of a lesbian recruiting your straight girlfriend to their sapphic cult? It’s no secret that lesbians are terrifying to Straight Men™, but if you have reason to speculate that your girl is under threat of conversion, you must act immediately.

If your girlfriend exhibits any symptoms detailed below, contact your nearest fraternity and re-indoctrinate her into heterosexuality: Wears more snapbacks than you do – and wears them better . . .

Selectively stealing your flannels.

Really wants to plan a “girls only camping trip” with her new friends – even though she’s never gone camping in her life.

If you would like to acquire the full symptoms list, we will be selling lesbian diagnostic packs outside the auditorium during intermission. We will be holding a Q&A session after the break, but if you’d like to contact me anonymously, I can be reached at: sexwithoutstr8men@ hotmail.com.

16 Diversions

Yuri Zhou / Business Manager

business@the-peak.ca