STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY AND CARE
The hate-motivated stabbing incident that occurred on Wednesday, June 28 at the University of Waterloo has sent shock waves to our community and networks at the University of British Columbia Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice.
Investigators in the case believed the attack at a Gender Studies class was targeted, a “hate-motivated incident related to gender expression and gender identity.”*
We at the GRSJ Institute are not strangers to similar incidents in the past. These are particularly troubling in light of increasing waves of homophobic and transphobic rhetoric and policy decisions in many parts of the world, including Canada and the United States. These troubling incidents are particularly worsened by the festering racial injustices, as are unfolding in France and other countries, and increasing socio-economic inequalities around the world.
Such violent manifestations of hate towards minoritized sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) groups and their allies advocating for affirming, inclusive, equitable and dignified campus environments have no place in our societies striving to celebrate sexual and gender diversity, especially during Pride Month, observed in June or July in many countries, cities and towns.
Our interdisciplinary fields — Gender Studies tackled critically and intersectionally with Indigenous, Race, Ethnicity, Class, Disability and Social Justice Studies — are needed by students, learners of all types, and the public at large — now more than ever. Targeting classes and spaces that tackle gender issues and concerns in intersectional ways only strengthen our resolve to continue to fight for and expand the human rights of SOGI and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, whose many members come from racialized and marginalized groups. We are committed to ensuring the physical and psychic safety of our learning, teaching, research and engagement communities so that we may all live, learn, and work in environments free from harassment, discrimination, oppression, prejudice, hate and violence. We value our diversity and promote respect, inclusion, participation and empowerment of SOGI students, faculty, and staff.
Faculty, staff and students at the UBC GRSJ Institute stand with 2SLGBTQIA+ communities in Canada and around the world in unwavering solidarity as we wish a speedy recovery to the injured professor and two students, who thankfully survive their non-life threatening injuries, and to the entire University of Waterloo community at this time of grief.
Leonora C. Angeles
Institute Director
