Downtown Toronto MP Olivia Chow speaks at the ECUT benefi t at St. Andrew’s, Toronto.
All young people, away from home for the first time at university or college, struggle with their own sense of identity. For some of them that struggle includes issues of gender or sexual identity. For many that struggle plays out in isolation. Rev. Karen Bach, founder of the Ecumenical Chaplaincy at the University of Toronto, encountered several students suffering this way when she was the campus chaplain.
“I remember one young woman, referred to me when she was discovered on her third floor window ledge contemplating suicide rather than accepting herself as a lesbian. It took her over a year to finally tell me why she had been out on the ledge. Tragically, she was convinced that her father would kill her if he found out about her sexual orientation.”
On another occasion she asked a young man to “articulate a word that would describe him … ‘Self-loathing …'” was his response.
When the Ecumenical Chaplaincy was formed in 1990 there was little or no openness about sexual identity and conversations were often held in private. Today, the chaplaincy has an outreach program to talk to and work with young people struggling with their sexual orientation within a faith environment. Qu(e)erying Religion, a ministry program for lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender and queer students was first launched in 2005 “to create a safe space to explore the interconnectedness of spiritual, religious, theological and queer realities in personal and theoretical perspectives.” The chaplaincy is housed at Knox College and
at Emmanuel College (United Church), Toronto.
A fundraiser was held at St. Andrew’s, Toronto, in support of QR in mid-September. More than 100 guests helped to raise several thousand dollars. Speaking in support of the program, Bach wrote, “That you are now providing a venue for them to gather together, to discuss experiences and theologies is exactly what has been needed on the campus for some time.”
