Queer Quotes
June is Pride Month!
Blog banner that has text, ‘Queer Quotes’ on a bright rainbow starburst background
One way we’re celebrating Pride Month is amplifying queer, Two Spirit, and trans voices.
Check out Queer Yukon’s website for info on Pride Month celebrations all over the Yukon.
“No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.”
Image description: Collage created by Kendrick Daye of photograph of Marsha P. Johnson taken by Hank O’Neal at NYC Pride in 1977.
Image description: Quote, ‘No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.’ - Marsha P. Johnson, on a colourful starburst background
Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha P. Johnson was an activist, self-identified drag queen, performer, and survivor. She was a prominent figure in the Stonewall uprising of 1969. Marsha went by “BLACK Marsha” before settling on Marsha P. Johnson. The “P” stood for “Pay It No Mind,” which is what Marsha would say in response to questions about her gender. It is the consideration of who “BLACK Marsha” was that inspired The Marsha P. Johnson Institute.
So much of our understanding of Marsha came from the accounts of people who did not look like or come from the same place as her. As transness is now more accessible to the world, introducing the Institute to BLACK trans people who are resisting, grappling with survival, and looking for community has become a clear need.
“Two Spirit People were regarded very highly before.
They were accepted as special people with gifts.”
Image Description: Photo of Ma-Nee Chacaby, an Ojibwe-Cree elder wearing a ribbon shirt, bone choker, holding a drum and looking up.
Image description: Quote, ‘Two Spirit People were regarded very highly before. They were accepted as special people with gifts.’ - Ma-Nee Chacaby, on a colourful starburst background
Ma-Nee Chacaby
Ma-Nee Chacaby is an Ojibwe–Cree writer, artist and activist from Canada. You may have met her at a rally in Thunder Bay or Toronto, seen her on the evening news or on the dance floor at Glad Day, or maybe she taught you how to make a drum.
She is well known for her memoir, A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder, an important account of her life. Ma-Nee is also a mentor, support, and advocate for Two Spirit communities across the country.
She lives in Thunder Bay, one of the most dangerous places in Canada for Indigenous people. Here, she mentors many individuals and groups, including Wiindo Debwe Mosewin and Not One More Death, who work to make safety for all people in Thunder Bay.
From ma-nee.art
Learn more about Two Spirit folks
Watch short films about Two Spirit people
“Be yourself until you make them uncomfortable.”
Image description: Quote, ‘Be yourself until you make them uncomfortable.’ - Alok Vaid-Menon, on a colourful starburst background
Alok Vaid-Menon
ALOK (they/them) is an internationally acclaimed author, poet, comedian, and public speaker. As a mixed-media artist their work explores themes of trauma, belonging, and the human condition. They are the author of Femme in Public (2017), Beyond the Gender Binary (2020), and Your Wound/My Garden (2021) and the creator of #DeGenderFashion: an initiative to degender fashion and beauty industries.
From alokvmenon.com
“Bullies are almost always outnumbered by the bullied. We just need to organize.”
Image description: Quote, ‘Bullies are almost always outnumbered by the bullied. We just need to organize.’ - Ivan Coyote, on a colourful starburst background
Ivan Coyote
Yukon’s Ivan Coyote is the award-winning author of thirteen books, the creator of four short films, and they have released three albums that combine storytelling with music. Ivan is a seasoned stage performer, and over the last twenty-six years has become an audience favourite at storytelling, writer’s, film, poetry, and folk music festivals from Anchorage to Australia.
Ivan often grapples with the complex and intensely personal issues of gender identity in their work, as well as topics such as family, class, social justice and queer liberation, but always with a generous heart, a quick wit, and the nuanced and finely-honed timing of a gifted storyteller. Ivan’s stories remind us of our own fallible and imperfect humanity while at the same time inspiring us to change the world.
From ivancoyote.com
“I understood a lot of things differently as I came out to myself.”
Image description: Quote, “I understood a lot of things differently as I came out to myself.I stepped closer to understanding feminism, and black power, and the pride of working class people in unions...”- adrienne maree brown, on a colourful starburst background
Quote from adrienne’s blog post, ’My Big Gay Blog Post’
adrienne Maree brown
adrienne maree brown grows healing ideas in public through her multi-genre writing, her music and her podcasts. Informed by 25 years of movement facilitation, somatics, Octavia E Butler scholarship and her work as a doula, adrienne has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Transformative Justice as ideas and practices for transformation. She is the author/editor of several published texts, cogenerator of a tarot deck and a developing musical ritual.
“It is dangerous to be a storyteller, it has always been dangerous to be a storyteller.
We must be brave and we must be strong.”
Image description: Quote, “It is dangerous to be a storyteller, it has always been dangerous to be a storyteller. We must be brave and we must be strong”- Kai Cheng Thom, on a colourful starburst background
Kai Cheng Thom
Kai Cheng Thom is a writer, performance artist, and community healer in Toronto. She is the author of the novel Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir (Metonymy Press), the essay collection I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes at the End of the World (an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book), the poetry collection a place called No Homeland (an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book in 2018), and the children's picture books From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea, illustrated by Kai Yun Ching and Wai-Yant Li, and For Laika, the Dog Who Learned the Names of the Stars, illustrated by Kai Yun Ching. Kai Cheng won the Writers' Trust of Canada's Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers in 2017.
From Arsenal Pulp Press
Check out Kai Cheng’s website
“With the imposition of colonization, Christianity, residential schools and ‘the Sixties Scoop,’ a lot of those [Indigenous] teachings of gender diversity have been lost...”
Image description: Quote, “With the imposition of colonization, Christianity, residential schools and ‘the Sixties Scoop,’ a lot of those [Indigenous] teachings of gender diversity have been lost...” - Dr. James Makokis, on a colourful starburst background
Dr. James Makokis
Dr. James A. Makokis is a Nehiyô (Plains Cree) Family Physician from the Saddle Lake Cree Nation in northeastern Alberta and the recent winner of Season 7 of “The Amazing Race Canada” with his husband Anthony Johnson as “Team Ahkameyimok” (“Never give up” in the Plains Cree language). They used their time on the show to bring attention to important issues like never before.
Dr. Makokis is a national and internationally recognized leader and author in the area of Indigenous health and transgender health. Recently named to “The Medical Post’s 2021 Power List,” Dr. Makokis believes that power should be shared, especially with those who have been disempowered. His philosophy of leadership is based on Nehiyô iyintiw wiyasiwewina (Cree Natural Laws) including kisewatisiwin (kindness), kwayask itatisiwin (honesty), sohkeyitamowin (strength/determination), and pahkwenamatowin (sharing) as taught to him by his Elders.
From drjamesmakokis.com
““We are not what other people say we are. We are who we know ourselves to be, and we are what we love. That’s OK.””
Image description: Quote, “We are not what other people say we are. We are who we know ourselves to be, and we are what we love. That's OK.”, on a colourful starburst background.
Laverne Cox
Laverne Cox is the first openly transgender person to appear on the covers of TIME Magazine, British Vogue, Cosmopolitan Magazine, and Essence Magazine, among others. Laverne also proudly holds two SAG Awards, winning them with her Orange Is the New Black castmates for ‘Outstanding Performance by Ensembles in a Comedy Series.’ Other accolades include a Critic’s Choice nomination for “Best Supporting Actress,” and consecutive NAACP Image Award nominations for “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy-Series.”
From lavernecox.com
“Your sole responsibility while you’re here on earth is to leave footprints behind that others will follow. And that’s a big responsibility.”
Image description: Quote, “We were the ceremony keepers, we were name givers, we were the medicine people, and people looked at us with honour and respect. Being Two-Spirited is like being a pipe carrier or being a lodge keeper: our lives are for the people.”, on a colourful starburst background.
Charlotte Nolin
Two-Spirit Elder Charlotte Nolin is an elder in residence at Ongomiizwin – Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing at the University of Manitoba. She is an Indigenous person of Métis ancestry – Oji-Cree and French – a survivor of the “Sixties Scoop” and a member of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community.
Following the passing of her wife 13 years ago, Elder Nolin realized that life is short and it’s important to make a positive impact while we’re here.
“I want to leave a good footprint behind that others will follow,” says Elder Nolin. “If I can convince one person to follow in my footsteps, then they may convince two people to follow in theirs, and so on, so down the road there will be a whole bunch of people walking in them.”
Elder Nolin has spent the last 35 years of her career working in social services, and along with being an Elder-in-Residence at Ongomiizwin, she is a Sweat Lodge keeper. She believes that the way to help her people is through social work and ceremony.
From UM News
“ The things we know about residential school — about segregating girls and boys, naming things so clearly as girls and boys, and nothing in between — that is a fracturing of a worldview.”
Image description: Quote, “The things we know about residential school — about segregating girls and boys, naming things so clearly as girls and boys, and nothing in between — that is a fracturing of a worldview.”, on a colourful starburst background.
Jennifer Lafontaine
Jennifer LaFontaine is Ukrainian and Métis from Duck Lake, Saskatchewan. Jennifer LaFontaine has extensive experience facilitating creative arts programs with community groups. Beginning in 1998, Jennifer created a community media program at a Toronto-based non-profit organization. For ten years, she taught black and white photography and digital storytelling in a women’s program, where women could share about their communities, highlight important social issues, and celebrate their strengths. The peer leadership programs Jennifer designed and facilitated enabled women to come together across diverse language and cultural differences.
“You belong in this world.”
Connie Merasty
Connie Merasty is a Swampy Cree and Two-Spirit person from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in Manitoba. She has worked with the Opaskwayak Educational Authority, the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network, and Two Spirited People of Manitoba. Her career has also involved human rights activism, dancing, writing, and acting.
