Creating Safer Spaces for 2SLGBTQIA+
IRSSS Commits to Creating Safer Spaces for Two Spirit (2S) and LGBTQIA+ people.
On April 21, the Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS) held a board of directors meeting in Kamloops and included on the agenda was a motion for IRSSS to have intentions of working consciously and deliberately with two spirit (2S), Indigiqueer, LGBTQIA+ members of First Nations communities across all programs. The motion was unanimously approved.
The commitment from IRSSS to creating safer spaces, includes
Providing inclusivity training and education for IRSSS staff, board of directors, and cultural support workers,
Cultivating safe spaces when event planning and workshop development,
Developing training programs, including workshops, for our partners and our cousin organizations,
Creating a strategy to better support trans people, primarily with outreach.
“Two Spirit and Indigiqueer Kin from First Nations communities face high rates of all social determinants of health compared to their non queer counterparts,” shares Jeremy Jones, Manager of Trauma Informed Care, “also, our trans relatives have little-to-no support when it comes to healing or navigating health care.”
The IRSSS looks forward to making meaningful connections with partnering organizations, agencies, and First Nations communities. Contact JeremyJones@irsss.ca for more information on IRSSS’s commitment for better care to the LGBTQIA+ people.
“Two-spirit” refers to a person who identifies as having both a masculine and a feminine spirit, and is used by some Indigenous people to describe their sexual, gender and/or spiritual identity. As an umbrella term it may encompass same-sex attraction and a wide variety of gender variance, including people who might be described in Western culture as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, gender queer, who have multiple gender identities.
The term Indigiqueer was created by Thirza Cuthand to title the Vancouver Queer Film Festival’s Indigenous/two-spirit program in 2004. They used the term to acknowledge that not all LGBTQIA+ Indigenous people feel that two-spirit describes their identity.