[Fdu] from York U colleagues: Joint Statement on Orlando shootings

[Cynthia Wright]

*Centre for Feminist Research, School of Gender, Sexuality & Women’s 
Studies, Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies and 
Sexuality Studies Program, York University, Toronto, Canada*

*Statement on Orlando Shootings*

June 27, 2016


We, as a community of scholars in critical studies of gender and 
sexuality, are deeply saddened by the recent and horrendous act of 
violence targeted at the trans and queer Latinx and Black people in 
Orlando, FL. Our sincere and heartfelt condolences go out to the victims 
and their families, who are mourning the losses of loved ones and 
recovering from injuries. We stand with LGB/T communities in Orlando, 
especially the Latinx, Black and Muslim identifying individuals and 
groups, whose rights to safety, gathering and belonging were immensely 
violated.


The felt sense of this profound tragedy has traveled beyond Orlando, as 
the mass shootings and the following news reports and social media 
debates strongly resonated with daily, on-going struggles against 
racism, transphobia, homophobia and Islamophobia experienced by many of 
us in Toronto. At York University, we are blessed with a tremendous 
diversity of student activism and organizing, academic activities and 
critical scholarship aimed at identifying and dismantling such 
intersecting regimes of oppression and the creation of coalitional 
movements for social justice. We reach out to, and stand in solidarity 
with, our Muslim, trans and queer students, staff and faculty of colour 
who have been deeply impacted by this tragedy.


Alongside the month-long Pride activities currently taking place in 
Toronto, the terrible incident in Orlando serves as a serious reminder 
that we continue to ask, with a renewed sense of urgency, how we must 
participate and support the anti-racist, anti-violence and 
decolonization work within and beyond local LGB/T communities. As 
university-based units, we hope to offer a safe space for dialogues, 
education and action in the coming weeks and months, and continue to 
remember those who lost their lives. It is timely to do so here and now 
so that violent and hateful actions such as this one are not repeated.


In solidarity,


Centre for Feminist Research

School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies

Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies

Sexuality Studies Program



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