COLLINS: A big month for the Pride community and our Indigenous peoples
TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY of an important month.
This month marks the time when we celebrate those who are part of the 2SLBGTQIA+ community. This group has fought hard for recognition and acceptance from the greater community. The battle is one that is far from being over.
It’s become more difficult as the mainstream public cannot seem to get it into their heads that members of the 2SLBGTQIA+ community are just like everyone else — they simply view things through a different lens. And many companies are showing their bias by cutting back support now that President Trump has continually railed against transgender and gay people. Now that the Pride movement has faced this challenge, companies who supported the Pride movement are showing their true colours, showing that they only supported the movement for the publicity they gained and not the cause itself.
National Indigenous History Month, culminating June 21 with National Indigenous Peoples’ Day, is another movement getting short shrift. We promote literature focusing on the Indigenous story, but a lot of it is not designed for the non-Indigenous person or is too dull to spark interest. Too many facts and figures, not enough story and then we have the special day June 21, but we don’t give it the status of a statutory holiday, so it doesn’t get anything near the stature it deserves. What we are doing, of course, is paying lip service to the needs of Indigenous peoples without doing much concrete to further their aims. I know that Truth and Reconciliation Day in September provides another day to pay attention to the history of Indigenous peoples, but it’s not nearly enough.
