Creating an accepting environment
Janet Bradshaw sees Island schools as often a frightening place for students who fall into the LGBTQ+ community.
“School is not a safe spot for the sexual minority…because fellow students will harass them and the kids are too scared to tell on them,’’ says Bradshaw, an educational assistant at Three Oaks Senior high school in Summerside.
She would like to see Island schools work towards creating a more supportive climate for students who identify as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, queer or other.
Five years ago, she had a friend whose child at Three Oaks identified as transgendered.
Bradshaw saw the importance of working to make this student and other sexual minority students more comfortable at school.
She started the first Gender Sexuality Alliance in 2014. Other schools in P.E.I. have since adopted GSAs.
Bradshaw would like to see all schools have such an alliance.
“It would be nice to have one in every school,’’ she says.
“It just makes for a safer environment.’’
She says her biggest worry is students in the LGBTQ+ community committing suicide as a result of ongoing harassment.
Protecting sexual minority students is behind her ongoing work to help create a more accepting, understanding and educated society.
She is the driving force behind the annual Gender Sexuality Alliance Conference that began in 2014 at Three Oaks.
This year’s conference will be hosted by Holland College in Charlottetown on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“I know that when you are there, everybody is accepting,’’ Bradshaw says of the fourth installment of the conference, which this year is called shOUT 4th.
“It is a safe space and in a safe space kids can be who they are…kids can realize that there are places like this in the world.’’
The conference is geared towards students from Grades seven to 12, young adults, educational staff, parents and health professionals who work with or have an interest in youth in the LGBTQ+ community.
Participants will be able to attend various sessions and workshops throughout the day. Topics will focus on teen sexual health, how to be an ally, being a LGBTQ+ senior, Trans 101, being a parent of a LGBTQ+ and more.
Presenters include Tom Hilton, project officer with the P.E.I. Human Rights Commission, AIDS P.E.I. executive director Cybelle Rieber, and UPEI Rainbow Alliance co-chairs Zak Court and Elyse Cottrell.
Those interested in attending can register at https://www. eventbrite.ca/e/pride-peipresents-2017-gsa-conferencetickets-33686712865?aff=es2.