One bright spot for me this past summer was discovering Calgary now has a support group for LGBTQ2S+ youth of colour. Queer Youth of Colour (QYOC) was formed slightly over a year ago, due to a negative encounter two of the group founders had at a supposed "queer friendly" program. Nadine Levinstein Rodriguez said "One of the other founders and I met at another queer youth program and it wasn’t a very pleasant experience to say the least. We both decided it wasn’t a very healthy environment for us to be....I wanted to join a group for queer people of colour because I wanted to be with people who understood our different challenges." Nadine looked for such a group but nothing existed in Calgary, so after some discussions and research, they decided to create QYOC.

A support group for queer youth of colour is something which has been overdue for a while because they have slightly different challenges than what has come before. By way of example, "Person X" – who is lesbian, Muslim, East Indian, and paraplegic – will encounter difficulty at times because all these identities create complex series of issues and greater potentials for discrimination. When a person’s individual identities overlap to form a whole which is different from the component identities, this creates intersectionality1. Essentially, with intersectionality, to fully understand "Person X" you have to understand how all her identities work together and how the person may then face compounded systems of discrimination.

Many queer people of colour (POC) find the support systems, policies and laws for the LGBTQ2S+ community in Canada are primarily catered towards someone who’s gay and Caucasian; when "Person X" comes along, while she receives support for her sexuality, the other aspects (East Indian, Muslim and paraplegic) are at best ignored or at worst used as targets for discrimination. The "one size fits all" approach we’ve had for the  LGBTQ2S+ community doesn’t work for identities on a broader continuum.

Dealing with concerns springing from intersectionality and providing support has been one of the main goals for QYOC. Azaria Puhl-Trinh, another spokesperson for the group, said their biggest challenge has been publicity and getting the word out: "we try to reach as many people as possible, especially through social media." QYOC is continuing to promote and adapt – so for their Thursday biweekly meetings they’re now starting to announce the agenda prior. Nadine added "another factor we hope will allow more people to join is our new location" which is at the Calgary Sexual Health Centre – it’s two blocks from Victoria Park C-train and has several bus routes nearby. Azaria added "We want people to know we are here to support and affirm each other in a world where it’s taboo for us to exist."

As for membership, it’s pretty much as per the labeling – Queer Youth of Colour: "We take members from the age of 14 to as old as 22, 24. The reasoning is that it’s the end of junior high/starting of high school. You start to have more personal freedom to access different resources" not just from teachers handing out information, but from any searches you carry out. The upper age limit was defined by what is the age of adulthood worldwide, so it can vary ("It’s also the age most other programs use" Azaria added). Trans youth are included in the membership, Nadine told me. "Most of the group is actually part of the trans community. In the name we’re just using ‘queer’ as an umbrella term including trans members."

They do put a restriction on allies, as Nadine told me: "we’re trying to create a space for racialized queer youth, and a lot of the time queer spaces can be very white dominated, and don’t take into account racialized queer identity and issues." Azaria added that allowing the wrong type of ally into this safe space can make it counter productive for the atmosphere they want to create, "...and then it becomes an invasion which people feel sort of uncomfortable."

This is not to say they have no allies. Calgary Sexual Health has been a tremendous ally – helping them set up the group and providing them meeting space. QYOC has worked with other organizations within the LGBTQ2S+ community. These are allies who respect the space QYOC holds. As well, Nadine mentioned they do work with other groups supporting people of colour, and they’ve been invited to speak about QYOC. "If we feel we both connect on some of the important issues, we’ll absolutely help each other out."

Given possible overlap, I wondered how the peer support QYOC provides compares to an average Gay Straight Alliance (GSA). Azaria said similar to how many LGBTQ2S+ groups function, "...the GSAs are run by predominately white gay and lesbian students". Queer youth of colour do tend to feel safer there as they don’t face discrimination based on their sexuality. In this manner, GSAs provide a helpful service, but even to someone who’s "white passing" like Azaria, there was a feeling something was missing/there was a lack of full understanding.

QYOC discuss issues GSAs may not fully examine – issues such as racist dating profiles (e.g. ‘No Asians, no blacks’); how people believe race and sexuality should be independent; and how in history and in popular culture many LGBTQ2S+ people of colour tend to be whitewashed. "When these issues are discussed in the GSAs, from my experience, a lot of people just glance off it or sweep it under the rug," Azaria said. This is something we’ve seen before where a problem for one group is invisible and of no interest for another group who doesn’t have that problem.

It’s possible GSAs could be coached on how to approach issues dealing with both sexuality and race. Nadine believes some of the younger leaders would be more open to asking the question "how can I make this safer for POC – what would you recommend?" It is a conversation to have on a one-on-one basis with consideration to the individual school environment as well. At this point it’s still too early for QYOC to discuss any educational outreach initiatives. "We’re all in school and busy so we don’t have any time to organize anything" Azaria added.

Examining how GSAs deal with the intersection of race/gender/sex/sexuality would be a start as it might motivate change in LGBTQ2S+ community organizations which are still white dominated. Unfortunately when it comes to the intersectionality of sexual and gender orientation with race, Nadine says they find many local groups "unable to consider them both at the same time." Their experience has been younger people - especially when they go to some LGBTQ2S+ events - have to try to "code switch2 " in that they parcel off their racial identity away from their sexual one: "You go to queer things (events)...and you have to stop or pretend to stop being a person of colour in order to try to be a queer person at the same time." Of course this is impossible to do if you want to be your authentic, whole self.

Nadine added "...for queer organizations themselves the problem is institutional and that’s not small steps. As for individual people within the organization, if they recognize their privilege and are inclined to better themselves they can do that on their own, but if they are either don’t know or don’t care about being more inclusive, then there’s really no helping it."

Education for these organizations might be a future aspiration for QYOC, but their current focus at meetings is support and community. "Some branches of that include affirming others orientation – whether it be gender, sexual, or romantic orientation; affirming how our queerness and race is valid and interact, and focus on making sure everyone has the resources they need for their mental and physical health...as important as creating this community is, it’s also important to create systematic change." The meeting agenda for QYOC changes from session to session. Sometimes the meeting is for people to discuss events in the past week with a supportive audience who can both understand the issue and empathize. Other times they may work on upcoming projects, and sometimes "we just sit and don’t talk because life is hard, and everyone understands that." They’ve done also field trips – whether it be visits to parks, the museum, attending the Coming Out monologues, or attending marches and rallies as a group.

Furthermore, Nadine later told me "Last year we did a zine called Don’t Be An Asshole which can be found at Shelf Life Books. It mostly points out racist and transphobic behaviors people often engage in." They have another zine in the works, this one dealing with mental health. "We are also currently working on a submission for Rest for Resistance, which is an online mental health zine by queer and trans people of colour." Earlier in the year they worked with The Good Life Bike Shop on a colouring book, and last April Nadine was awarded the Dr. Gary Sanders Youth Heart Award for LGBTQ+ Youth of the Year for their work in QYOC.

Change is happening, and progressive people, organizations and businesses understand at times there are events and places we should adjust out of mutual respect.  With groups like QYOC, as Azaria puts it, "I had the opportunity to connect with fellow racialized queer youth. I was able to make a better connection with my queerness and my roots and realize they aren’t two separate things. They exist together because they’re both me." Queer Youth of Colour plan to continue to do what they do because it’s important everyone is able to find community and acceptance with people who understand them – something we all want and should want to offer our fellow community members.

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Contributor Evan Kayne |

Locale Calgary |

Topic Queer Youth of Colour |