I have just finished week 4 of my Leadership in Action project, and it was one of my favorite weeks yet. This week, we hosted our first in-person event, celebrating the imminent publication of the organization's latest research report on the role of GSAs (Gay-Straight Alliances) in faith-based schools. In Ontario, all publicly funded schools are required to establish a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) upon request from students. Although this means that there is a clear legal precedent set for schools (including publicly funded faith-based schools), legal compliance does not necessarily guarantee emotional safety for these students. While many schools have GSAs, they are either not well run or are not eagerly supported by teaching staff and school administrators. This report, to be released later this summer, hopes to address ways in which different schools can address these issues to promote a safer and welcoming environment for 2SLGBTQ+ students.
Beyond this, we are beginning to gear ourselves up for Pride this next weekend. Toronto hosts one of the world's largest Pride parades, and I'm excited to both celebrate and work at this event this coming weekend.
While we celebrate all of these events, I continue to work on outreach to places of worship in the GTA and merge our Worshipping with Love workshop and Safer S.P.A.C.E.S. accreditation program together. One challenge I am running into is the lack of responsiveness from churches. While some are certainly intentionally ignoring our messages, others have outdated emails on their websites, or do not have the capacity to respond regularly. This week I plan to personally call each church I have emailed in an attempt to get them to buy into our workshop.