The goal of the GEC is to make UTS a safe space for all, and this year’s focus is on combatting transphobia. From the beginning of the year in September when I first joined the club, I was impressed to see the level of student engagement and leadership among the student executives of the club. At the Club’s Fair I was surprised to see only the students at the table and no staff member present. When asked to speak about their club, the students eloquently explained the goal: to raise awareness about gender inequity and transphobia at UTS to work towards creating a safer school for students who do not identify as cis-gender.

When I went to the first executive meeting a few of the projects for the year were laid out with the main one being a workshop for M3 (grade 9) students on transphobic language, specifically discussing the way jokes can be offensive even if there was no offence intended. This workshop isn’t happening until the spring, though. The fall was devoted to conversations and discussions as well as a poster campaign for Transgender Day of Remembrance. The executives have meetings once a week, and the first Tuesday of every month would be a general meeting where any student could come and participate in a discussion on a particular topic around gender equity. As I frequented the weekly meetings I was impressed with the depth of knowledge the students had regarding gender equity and the critical lens in which they view gender in our current society. I had a moment where I had to check in with myself and reflect that the conversations the students were having were simply not the norm during my high school experience. For example, the students were of the opinion that of course there should be gender neutral bathrooms, that of course all teachers should respect students’ preferred pronouns and that obviously there are more than just two gender identities. Because I operate in a bubble in terms of who I engage with in my personal life and on social media, I often normalize these kinds of conversations. But it was so refreshing to hear these kinds of conversations among young people. However, they too operate in a bubble, and the biggest question for the club is how they can spread this kind of awareness to the entire school. What actions can they take to make these conversations normal amongst all UTS students?

The GEC is definitely operating within Androtti’s critical global citizenship on the one hand. At one of the general meetings, I introduced the “Genderbread person” (included below) versus the “Gender Unicorn”. A nuanced discussion unfolded whereby we talked about whether or not biological sex should be on a spectrum or can be determined by checking “male” “female” or “other”. No perfect conclusion was reached, and because of this, I felt like the conversation was operating under the assumptions of critical global citizenship because, to an extent, we were “[analysing our] own position/context and participate in changing structures, assumptions, identities, attitudes and power relations in their contexts” (Androtti 47). By challenging assumptions about normative understandings of gender and even questioning whether or not biological sex should operate on a spectrum, the students were thinking critically.

I was beginning to feel, though, that as much as we were having productive conversations amongst our group, how were we reaching the broader UTS “audience”? However, in mid-November the students told me they were planning their first initiative: a Transgender Day of Remembrance poster campaign. The students found relevant posters online, including the one featured below, as well as informative posters about inclusive language around gender identity and relevant statistics. Behind each poster, the students decided to put a sticky note on the wall that said, “by ripping this poster down, you have just committed a transphobic act”. This encourages anyone that may be resistant to the message on the poster to consider that transphobia is not limited to words spoken, but it’s also actions. Though I haven’t had a chance to debrief with the students yet, checking in with the staff supervisor, it appears that no posters have been taken down, which speaks to UTS as a whole being a fairly positive space for LGBTQ+ identifying people. My next question for the group is whether or not they think this campaign reached the student body. How do they measure the effect of this campaign?