The Martlet

March 20 wasn’t just a Friday. It was also the day that UVic celebrated the UN-declared International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Organized by the Students of Colour Collective (SOCC), the day included a panel discussion which saw four graduate and undergraduate students speak about their experiences as both racialized and individuals with non-heterosexual preferences.

Nish Khanna, a UVic graduate student, talked about his experience with a friend who met him at a conference the first year as a woman and re-encountered Khanna the second after he had transitioned.

Initially, he said, the friend was shocked. But, at the conference, she found him and they sat down together to talk. The most important thing his friend did, Khanna said, was ask questions.

Soumya Natarajan, who works on Project Respect, a project of the Victoria Women’s Sexual Assault Centre, talked about growing up in India and thinking about her sexual identity, as someone who liked women, as being separate from her identity as an Indian woman.

“When I think of myself as a queer person, I kind of think about it in a white way, and when I think about myself … as a brown person, I don’t really think of my sexuality,” she explained.

Natarajan wasn’t sure what to do about the disconnect, she said, as it is something she struggles with herself.

But Khalilah Alwani, a women’s studies and political science graduate, had an idea. Alwani called for more resources for racialized people and sexuality — she said her research has turned up only enough to count on one hand.

“I think a lot of it comes down to actively claiming those spaces and using the resources we have,” she said, explaining that mediums like zines were a good way to get the message out.

First-year undergrad Ariel Tseng talked about being both a Taiwanese-Canadian and the first person to come out at her Christian high school.

The panel was emceed by Jin-Sun Yoon, a senior instructor at UVic’s School of Child and Youth Care. Pamela Brown, a representative from UVic’s new Positive Space Network, was also in attendance.

Brown said the network is a step in the right direction for UVic, because it means that UVic is giving institutional recognition to gender issues.

“The goal of the network is to make UVic a safer space for all genders and sexualities,” she explained.

When something is recognized and supported as an institutional goal, it becomes more important, she said.