What we can do for Pride
Slapping a rainbow logo up ain’t it…
June is Pride Month. It’s the month you start noticing all the rainbow logos from corporates who don’t care about queers the other 11 months of the year. But we all care about each other and that’s what matters. So this month, we have a special Pride edition of The Call. Basically The Call is a response to the question ‘what can I do to help?’ ‘Can I donate somewhere?’ and ‘I want to do something, where do I start?’
Throughout this post you’ll see LGBTQIA+ folks referred to as both rainbow and queer. My preference is for the term queer, but I did not want to change the wording charities are using which is usually ‘rainbow’. Also, if you’re straight you can’t say queers you have to say queer people just FYI. In working out how to word this I asked a fellow queer and they said I should put “if you donate over a hundred bucks to any of these orgs you have permission to say queers for one calendar month” lolololol.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Pride Month is celebrated each year in June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan. The very first Pride march in New York City was held on June 28, 1970, on the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising.
Pride is a time all around the world where we honour trans women of colour for leading the Stonewall Uprising. We honour those we have lost and those who survived, those who have fought for more, those who continue to fight. We cherish our elders, and our emerging queers of all ages who will lead us and journey with us.
I hate the rainbow-washing capitalism of the new Pride. But I also like the fact that for at least one month, young queers might see more of their community than they ever have before. Pride is still important in that sense. And every time we talk about the strides we’ve made and the protests we still need - it’s powerful.
So, if you want to do something useful for Pride, here’s your chance. Here are some awesome community organisations, charities and kaupapa to support not just in June, but every month of the year!
Rainbow Path - Rainbow Path is an advocacy and peer support group for the rights of Rainbow refugees and asylum seekers living in Aotearoa. It is led by Rainbow refugees and asylum seekers, with support from other Rainbow human rights defenders.
Rainbow Path’s work is always led by asylum seekers and refugees with lived experiences, with the support of allies in the group. There are also many tasks that people can volunteer to support this work. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact them. Follow their Facebook page for specific calls for support (like helping someone move flats or practice their driving).
Outside of volunteering - there are other ways to help Rainbow asylum seekers and refugees. Rainbow Path recommends you get to know Rainbow refugees and asylum seekers. Find free or cheap food places or events you can go to together. The asylum-seeking and resettlement processes are very difficult, traumatic and stressful. Be there for Rainbow refugees and asylum seekers. Many refugees and asylum seekers say they feel safe in Aotearoa – but they do not feel like they belong here.
OutLine is a rainbow mental health organisation providing support services across Aotearoa. They provide a free nationwide 0800 phone line and online chat support service staffed by trained volunteers and specialist face-to-face and Skype counselling. Their services are free and confidential. Donate to keep the service going here.
How inclusive is your workplace? Te Ngākau Kahukura has a tool for you to assess how well are you doing at supporting and including queer young people.
You could use this as a place to start thinking about what rainbow inclusion means for your organisation. You can also revisit the tool each year as you evaluate your organisation’s rainbow action plan, to gauge how much you have learned and implemented. If you need more specialised advice and support, get in touch with Te Ngākau Kahukrua.
I especially like the advice on working with queer folks. I have been the resident gay at a workplace before and it fucking sucked so I appreciate this:
Provide paid time and resources for staff to work on rainbow-related projects.
Enable rainbow staff to connect with each other - create a rainbow staff network or similar peer group.
Advertise your organisation's paid and volunteer roles in rainbow media.
Use rainbow-inclusive language in job advertisements and job descriptions.
Include questions about rainbow competence as part of the recruitment and interview process for new employees.
This is friggen awesome - ANZ is introducing six weeks of paid gender affirmation leave, and up to 12 months’ unpaid leave, to its employees in New Zealand and Australia.
It shows real care for your queer employees.
Gender Minorities Aotearoa is a nationwide transgender organisation. It is run by and for transgender people; including binary and non-binary, intersex, and irawhiti takatāpui. They support transgender people of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds, and provide one-to-one peer support and information nationwide.
You can donate to support their amazing mahi here. This Pride Month, why not download and read their “Be an Ally 101” booklet. There they discuss how common trans people are, what their lives are like, how to support a trans person you know, how to support trans rights, and where to find out more.
Find out:
– “How common is being trans in Aotearoa?”
– “What are the issues for trans people?”
– “How can I support a trans person who I know?”
– “How can I be a good ally more generally?”
And share this information widely! It’s crucial we combat transphobia wherever we see it - this info will help you to do that.
You and your mates or colleagues or whānau can also do the Gender Minorities Aotearoa Supporting Transgender People online course. It’s totally free. This course is designed to increase your knowledge of issues affecting transgender people in Aotearoa, and to build your confidence in speaking about these issues and supporting transgender people. It is a 101 course and suitable for people with any level of knowledge on transgender issues. The course takes two to three hours to complete, and is broken into three sessions. You can stop at any time and continue later by logging in again.
InsideOUT is a national organisation which works with youth, whānau, schools and communities to make Aotearoa a safer place for all rainbow young people to live and be in. InsideOUT’s work includes support and resources for schools, connecting rainbow young people through national and regional events, and providing training for workplaces. Donate here.
The amazing folks at Qtopia want to build a kinder world for everyone. They’re leading change in how whānau, communities, the healthcare system, schools, employers, churches and more care for rainbow young people.
They’re a social support service for LGBTQIA+ young people, their whānau, and their communities based in Ōtautahi Christchurch and servicing Te Waipounamu and beyond. They run youth groups, whānau support and have heaps of great resources. They also connect rainbow kids with free counselling. Their Diversity and Inclusion workshops are available to schools, workplaces, churches, businesses and anyone interested in creating an inclusive Canterbury.
So if you’re in Canterbury - sign up! You can donate to keep their amazing mahi going too.
Moana Vā are an incredible collective that offers safe spaces for the Pacific Rainbow community in Ōtautahi Christchurch. Founder Suli Tuitaupe says Moana Vā want to make spaces that are inclusive of everyone, no matter where they are at on their journey. Follow them on Instagram and Facebook.
The Manalagi Project is New Zealand's first Pacific Rainbow+ Health and Wellbeing Project. The survey is the first of its kind and will investigate both general and healthcare-specific experiences of Pacific Rainbow+ / MVPFAFF+ communities in Aotearoa.
MVPFAFF+ is an acronym to describe Pasifika identities; Mahu (Hawai’i and Tahiti), Vaka sa lewa lewa (Fiji), Palopa (Papua New Guinea) Fa’afafine (Samoa) Akava’ine (Rarotonga), Fakaleiti (Tonga), Fakafifine (Niue). Other terms include Fakaleiti, Rae rae, and Fafafine.
Pacific Rainbow+ People and their family, friends as well as allies can take the survey. There will be a set of questions for Pacific Rainbow+ peoples, and a different set of questions for family, friends, and allies. Both sets of questions can be accessed here.
The survey should only take about 30-40 minutes to complete, depending on how much you wish to share. Please note, you must be 15 years old and above to take the survey. Please share it around!
RainbowYOUTH is a national youth-led organisation dedicated to supporting queer, gender diverse, takatāpui and intersex young people, as well as their whānau and wider communities. RainbowYOUTH runs drop-in centres and social groups. They provide one-on-one support to young people around gender and sexuality, and publishes a range of information resources and websites.
Adhikaar Aotearoa are an awsome charity. Adhikaar, in many South Asian languages, means “right”. Adhikaar Aotearoa exists “because we want LGBTQIA+ people of colour, specifically South Asians, to be able to live their lives without having to choose between their sexuality/sex and gender diversity and their ethnicity”.
I feel like their inspiring kaupapa is a good way to wrap up this edition of The Call:
“We exist because we want the stories of our kids having to hide themselves from their families and wider society to stop and be replaced with stories of joy, hospitality and community…We exist because we want change.” - Adhikaar Aotearoa
I’d love to hear about your favourite organisations - I have no doubt there are so many amazing Queer orgs out there doing incredible mahi and I’d like to highlight as many as I can. So please hit me up!
Awesome kōrero Emily!! Go ANZ, other banks take note!
Emily can we talk about the horrendous TERF conference that’s happening in Nelson in August? It’s marketed as a mental health conference for therapists who work with young people but it’s flat out transphobic shit. The Child and Adolescents Therapists Association.