Trans Awareness Month

Trans Awareness Month in 2023 formed a continuation of the culmination of Positive Space’s fall Pride programming. 

In November 2023, Positive Space hosted Protecting Trans Youth: Your Questions Answered! This was an interactive session of faculty, staff and students to respond to questions about how to best protect and support trans youth. Topics included trans media, culture, activism, education, policing and protests.  

In collaboration with Athletics and Recreation, Positive Space invited community members to participate in programming, including:

• free trial memberships
• trans and gender diverse swim times
• trans and allies fitness classes

Positive Space also brought the TMU community together to observe Trans Day of Remembrance (TDOR). Started in 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith, TDOR is an annual observance on November 20 that honours the memory of the trans people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-trans violence. Speakers and community leaders spoke to the significance of this day in light of escalating hostilities towards 2SLGBTQ+ communities.

Positive Space hosted the kickoff for Trans Awareness Month, to launch a month of programs, action, and community events at TMU, including:

• As part of the launch of the Minor in LGBTQ2S+ Studies, Positive Space hosted a Q&A on the minor for students, faculty and advising staff. Positive Space passionately supported the development of the new Minor in LGBTQ2S+ Studies. We strongly believed that the program was long overdue and the first step in filling the gap in our undergraduate curricular offerings by addressing the lack of structured programming in broad and representative gender and sexuality studies. 
• Positive Space also sponsored Exploring Trans Culture: A moderated book talk with Dr. Marty Fink that explores Kai Cheng Thom’s work. Kai Cheng Thom is a writer, performance artist and community healer in Toronto. She is the author of the novel Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir (Metonymy Press), the essay collection I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes at the End of the World (an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book), the poetry collection a place called No Homeland (an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book in 2018), and the children's picture books From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea, illustrated by Kai Yun Ching and Wai-Yant Li, and For Laika, the Dog Who Learned the Names of the Stars, illustrated by Kai Yun Ching. Kai Cheng won the Writers' Trust of Canada's Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers in 2017.
• Trans and non-binary students face several barriers in higher education due to a lack of acknowledgement and respect, often resulting in violence and social exclusion. In November 2022, Positive Space and the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching hosted a virtual workshop to provide participants with constructive and tangible steps on how to create safer spaces for trans and non-binary students. 
• The Image Centre partnered with the Positive Space to host a private tour of the CANADA NOW: New Photography Acquisitions exhibition with Collections Curator Denise Birkhofer. 
• Together with Positive Space, the TMU Libraries launched a program guide, a curated collection by trans authors, researchers and activists.
• In partnership with Athletics and Recreation, Positive Space invited community members to participate in programming, featuring:
  • free trial memberships
  • trans and gender diverse swims
  • trans and allies fitness classes

In November 2021, Positive Space was proud to partner with Wellbeing Services to launch information sessions about the new gender affirmation benefits that were available to university staff and dependents. 

Together with Positive Space, the Toronto Metropolitan University Libraries launched a program to guide users through a curated collection by trans authors, researchers and activists.

Recognizing that sports spaces have a long history of being unwelcoming to and unsafe for trans and gender diverse folks, Athletics and Recreation undertook specific initiatives to make their spaces and programs more welcoming. During the month of November, community members were invited to join weekly trans and allies group fitness classes on Zoom, as well as trans and gender-diverse swim times in-person. 

All university employees were invited to join our online Q&A so that they can work towards being a trans-inclusive leader and colleague.

In honour and celebration of Trans Awareness Month 2020, university  students, faculty and staff were invited to join Positive Space and friends for the virtual kickoff event.

 The Catalyst, together with Positive Space and Professor Marty Fink hosted a talk to revisit trans women's archives from the early years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic to think through ongoing strategies for harm reduction and caregiving in response to COVID-19. 

Positive Space partnered with The Catalyst and Alysia Myette for a screening and conversation about her documentary “FLUID”, and with Sam Feder for a screening and conversation about their documentary "Disclosure." 

Positive Space and the university Library hosted a reading of their favourite inclusive picture-book stories. Librarians facilitated the reading open to kids ages 2 to 102! 

Positive Space hosted a panel discussion on Trans and non-binary inclusion in the workplace to learn from individuals on how they’ve navigated their workspaces as trans and non-binary identified individuals. 

Recognizing that sports spaces have a long history of being unwelcoming to and unsafe for trans and gender diverse folks, Athletics and Recreation undertook specific initiatives to make their spaces and programs more welcoming. During the month of November, community members were invited to join weekly trans and allies group fitness classes on Zoom, as well as trans and gender-diverse swim times in-person. 

Positive Space hosted author Jiaqing Wilson-Yang for a reading and conversation about her book “Small Beauty”. Winner of 29th Annual Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction, “Small Beauty” tells the story of Mei, a mixed race trans woman managing the death of her cousin, the ways she contorts to navigate racism and transphobia, and her desire for community. You’ll follow her story as she takes an opportunity to leave the city and revisit a town from her family’s past, where she discovers queer family history while parsing through her own anger and trauma.