Five years ago in a Nova Scotian high school, two teens started an anti-bullying movement in support of a ninth grader who was picked on for wearing pink.
In 2008, Pink Shirt Day involved a mere 50 students. Today, schools and institutions across Canada take part by wearing pink on the last Wednesday of February. You can add U of T Engineering to that list.
“Pink Shirt Day began as a rare act of compassion and understanding,” said Dr. Peter Weiss, Senior Lecturer and Director of the Engineering Communications Program. “It was initiated by students who viewed the homophobic bullying as unjust and inhumane. They realized that they could do something to make a statement, and make a difference.”
As a member of Engineering Positive Space, Weiss and team want to make a statement, and a difference, too. That’s why they brought Pink Shirt Day to U of T Engineering this year, and hope to do it again next February.
“The Faculty’s first Pink Shirt Day was very well received,” said Amanda Bell (IndE 1T2, MASc candidate), a Positive Space member and event organizer. “We had about 30 people write anti-bullying messages of all kinds.”
The event is among a number of initiatives the group have introduced to inspire inclusiveness and tolerance within the Faculty.
Over the course of the last two years, Engineering Positive Space have worked to raise awareness of issues related to marginalization due to difference – especially issues around hurtful and offensive language.
“The term ‘gay’ is a good example,” said Weiss, “In the gay community, it has been adapted as a neutral term to describe a sexual preference. But in common conversation, it often carries a negative connotation.”
To address the problem, the group launched workshops, and ran a poster and badge campaign last year. On the poster, a student holds a rainbow-adorned hard hat, as the caption reads: “My hard hat isn’t gay, but I might be.”
“It created opportunities for people to discuss, in objective and constructive ways, the issues around marginalization,” said Weiss.
While the poster campaign focused on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer concerns, marginalization is much wider. “[That’s why] opening discussion of problems related to it makes Engineering and the university much more welcoming for everyone,” said Weiss.
Engineering Positive Space is part of a wider university effort – the U of T Positive Space Campaign is a groundbreaking program that identifies safer and more inclusive spaces for students, staff, faculty, alumni and allies of all sexual orientation.
For U of T Engineering’s part, Weiss said that he’s amazed by the commitment the Faculty and its students have shown to deal with bullying and discrimination.
“Engineering Positive Space has made an enormous difference,” he said. “The presence of our posters and the Faculty’s support, has allowed me to feel much freer in expressing myself and being myself than I felt before.
“As someone who has been deeply traumatized by marginalization, I always assume that I will not be accepted… Even when people are not openly hostile, it’s hard to turn around and think that in reality they will be accepting when they have given no sign that this would be true – Engineering Positive Space has been that ‘sign’ for me.”
