I’m Not Gay, I’m Angry (Fierté en hiver Concordia)

—EVENT DESCRIPTION—
The histories of queer and trans identities are based in struggle. Riots and violent resistance are commonplace in our communities, from Compton’s Cafeteria to Stonewall, and from Montréal’s Sex Garage to Toronto’s bathhouse raids. This workshop will guide participants through the basics of contemporary North American LGBTQIA+ activist movements, as well as the legacy of this struggle that exists in these communities to this day. In an effort to underline the multiple discriminations of LGBTQIA+ people of colour, particular focus will be placed on the (often erased) racialized aspects of these struggles. Open to all. Priority for queer and trans people, especially QTBIPOC.

— LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT —
This event will be taking place on the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) people. This land was also a meeting place for other nations including the Anishinaabe (Algonquin) people. This land, known as Tiotiá:ke in the Kanien’kehá language, was never surrendered or ceded by the Kanien’kehá:ka. This is a reality inherent in the Indigenous legal system of the Kanien’kehá:ka people, but it is also recognized in Canadian common law, as laid out in the Royal Proclamation of 1763, and the Constitution Act of 1982.

Systems of colonization were utilized to fraudulently acquire this land and exploit its resources. Much of privilege and opportunities available to settlers (i.e., non-Indigenous people) living in Montreal are a result of this ongoing and grave injustice. While we continue to benefit from this oppression, there are Indigenous communities across Turtle Island which are still without clean drinking water and adequate housing, and where families live in dire poverty. We as settlers directly and indirectly benefit from this, and it is integral that we work towards undoing the violent systems of colonization and oppression that affect Indigenous communities to this day.

— ABOUT THE PRESENTER —
Vincent Mousseau (they/them) is a community organizer, educator, student, and activist based in based in Tio’tia:ke (Montréal, QC), on the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) nation. As both an activist and an educator, their areas of expertise include anti-oppressive framework, intersectional analysis, Black Lives Matter activism, and contemporary anti-assimilationist queer activism.