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North West College recognizes LGBT advocacy

Mar 9, 2016 | 8:57 AM

Championing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advocacy was part of North West College’s International Women’s Day celebration on Tuesday, March 8. 

Rikki Kadler, 18, won the student-nominated award for LGBT Community Advocate, one of the eight awards, in five categories, handed out during the celebration.

“I’m really happy I won it, because I am a huge advocate for LGBT rights, being gay myself,” Kadler said. “I think it’s horrible that some people don’t have the same rights other people do just for being different, or loving who they love, or not conforming to gender norms.”

Winning an institutional award in celebration of her LGBT advocacy means a lot to Kadler.

“I didn’t even think there were awards for things like this, for just being yourself,” she said. “When I was growing up, I didn’t have much knowledge on LGBT [issues] so I had to go to the internet and it wasn’t really an open topic with my parents. So getting this award, in a school, that’s just phenomenal.”

Lesbian and bisexual women are stigmatized, and are often seen as being greedy by heterosexuals Kadler said. This persists, she continued, because both groups are under/misrepresented in the media.

“When you see a lesbian in the media she is usually either the butch, go to Home Hardware, or the lipstick, absolutely feminine, and there is no in between for that.”

Other awards that were handed out were the woman of courage award, women in business award, role model award, and an academic award. Only six of the eight award recipients were in attendance when the awards were given out.

 

dcairnsbrenner@jpbg.ca