Learn More & Take Action:
Help foster a sense of belonging through these equity, diversity, and inclusion Zoom and MS Teams backgrounds from KPE. These virtual backgrounds and accompanying resources aim to direct people to learn more and take action during these days and periods of the year to inspire a supportive community of critical allyship.
Many of these are also available to use any time of the year as a way of ensuring your privacy is taken into consideration when working from home. Instructions on how to download and use these backgrounds are below:
Pride Month (June)
Pride Month Background - She/her/hers Pronouns
Pride Month Background - He/him/his Pronouns
Pride Month Background - They/them/theirs Pronouns
Pride Month Background - Ask Me About My Pronouns
Pride Month Background - Customizable Pronouns
Happy Pride! We invite you to celebrate this Pride Month by sharing a virtual background. There are five versions of the Pride Month Virtual Backgrounds with different pronoun options: she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/theirs, ask me about my pronouns, and one with a customizable pronoun box. Sharing pronouns in various ways, such as at the start of meetings, in bios, or in email signatures, is one way that cisgender people can act as allies to the transgender community. This practice normalizes the idea that someone's pronouns cannot be guessed by their appearance, and helps to avoid misgendering.
The following list of resources provides a (non-exhaustive) list of ways to act in solidarity with the queer and trans community during Pride and beyond, helpful information for understanding the significance of pronouns, and U of T Pride Month Celebration events:
RESOURCES
Asian Heritage Month (May)
May is Asian Heritage Month in Canada. It's a time to celebrate the Asian community, and the contributions of Canadians with Asian heritage, both past and present, towards the enrichment and diversity of society. Asian Heritage Month has been celebrated across the country since the 1990s, and in 2001 Senator Vivianne Poy lead the motion for a national declaration and acknowledgement annually. Please take this time to better understand the ongoing struggles of the Asian community in North America, and work to address the racism Asian communities face at both systemic and individual levels. It’s important to continue dialogues about historical and ongoing injustices in Canada, that continue to impact Asian Canadians, as we work towards a more inclusive future in this country.
Asia is a vast part of the world including many regions and countries. Asian heritage is diverse, has different meanings in different communities, and even between generations. Asia consists of, China, Hong Kong S.A.R., Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Macao, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Timor-Lest, and Yemen.
RESOURCES
Anti-Homophobic and Transphobic Violence Days
Pink Shirt Day (Canada) - Feb 24
Int. Day of Pink (2021) - April 14
Pink Shirt Day should not be simply a performative event that we engage in once a year. Acting in solidarity with the 2SLGBTQIA+ community requires lifelong learning to unpack the ways that homophobic and transphobic violence operate in our society. It also requires amplifying queer and trans voices and taking action against interpersonal, institutional and structural forms of homophobia and transphobia. It is helpful to remember that “bullying” is not an individual issue – tackling forms of violence against the 2SLGBTQIA+ community requires addressing broad systemic factors that enable and sustain cis-heteronormativity. The following resources are not exhaustive but can serve as a starting point: