I am Black.
I am female.
I'm lesbian.
I'm with local 2182
which is the Marine communications union
with Coast Guard
and I am a queer trans woman
I'm gay.
I have been married for 11 years
with the same partner for 32 years.
I am a Lebanese Armenian.
I've been in Canada for 30 years
and I am gay.
I am a Shop Steward
and I'm on the bargaining committee.
I am a lesbian.
I am a lesbian and
I identify as femme.
I identify as a gay man.
I identify as a transgender female.
I'm also a lesbian.
I'm a Vice-chair for Unifor.
I'm married to a man
and I'm gay
I am Polish.
I am white.
I identify as a lesbian
I am lesbian,
chairperson
and a strong voice
Homophobia
Homophobia in my workplace
sounds like
having to wait for
your probation to end
before coming out
One of the biggest problems
that I have with being femme is that
people assume that I'm straight
It is difficult to recruit
and have members
who participate on committees
When I'm running for
a position in the union
and you look at my poster
and you step back and think twice
before electing me
A petition to get rid of me,
bullying, a lot of name calling,
death threats
Transphobia looks like
asking people personal questions
about their genitals,
like whether or not they have
gone through an assignment surgery
or gender affirming surgery for them.
It's nobody's business
what is under my clothes.
Allyship feels like
Allyship looks like
I need to have someone
there to support me
or send someone here to the conference
Allyship is important,
especially in terms of our trans members.
We need to stand behind our trans members.
I think they have the biggest struggles
in the community,
in the workplace,
and just being accepted.
For me it means the acceptance
Supporting LGBTQ and
workers of colour
for positions in the union
Someone who will
fight for your right to survive
This is important for me
because our members are
still having barriers
put up against them
It is important to have the support
you need to create
a much safer environment
for Unifor members.
If you don't stand up
for the LGBT members
you put them in danger
It's important to have these ideas
there for those members.
So we represent them all
and we have to be there for them.
We have trans workers that members,
we have lesbian workers that are members,
we have bisexual workers that are members,
we have gay members that are workers.
This is all of our issue.
We need our allies.
My Unifor is
inclusive of everyone
It's having any member
feel comfortable enough to
step up and say
"that's not right! you can't say that"
because right now members don't
Each member is safe,
secure, able to come out of the closet.
To ensure that their union
is there for them, to defend them.
says they accept me
Is that everyone in the Queer community
can be themselves
without of fear in the workplace
My Unifor
includes me