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A staircase at UBCO has a new pop of colour, as a way to show students the campus is welcoming to all.
The new rainbow staircase is part of an 18-month awareness-raising project. On April 18 the staircase was unveiled to the public and students at the university.
For Sarah Desrosier, a student at UBCO, she said for herself and her friends it’s huge to have a visual rainbow on campus.
“For all of us when we got to campus there was no visual queer community. You don’t know where to go or who to talk to. Our Pride Resource Centre is at the end of a hall, under the stairs, it’s just not accessible at all.”
The new multi-colour walkway cost the UBC Okanagan Students’ Union $3,000.
Another student, Nicolas Huertas thought it was cool to see that the Students’ Union was behind this project.
“I think it’s really significant. It shows how much the campus community is involved in inclusivity and diversity and how much it means to all of us to be a part of this campus."
During the unveiling Ben Moody, UBC Okanagan’s Pride Resource Centre coordinator said he didn’t want to comment on the criticism that usually comes with painting something multi-coloured, but thought he had to.
The biggest question he wanted to answer was ‘doesn’t the rainbow staircase exclude heterosexual people?’
“The answer is quite simply no. Sure the rainbow flag has its origins within the gay subculture in late 1970 San Francisco, but the original colours each had specific meanings. Hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for serenity with nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony and violet for spirit. None of these meanings are exclusive to anyone, we all share a desire to be respected and loved.”
Deborah Buszard, Principal of UBCO and Vice Chancellor of UBC spoke during the launch event and said she is personally committed to making UBCO a place that welcomes all people.
“The word university has a root in universality and we would be a lesser place if we did not welcome everyone and include all in our activities here.”
Before the staircase was painted a research team spent the last year interviewing queer, indigenous and racialized students to hear their experiences on the UBCO campus as well as in Kelowna.
Jenica Frisque, an educator at UBC Okanagan’s Equity and Inclusion office said the two biggest concerns individuals had were feeling like there wasn’t a visual queer community on campus and that there was a lack of awareness around gender identity.
Jessica Hummel, a UBCO student agreed saying a lot of people don’t even know the pride resource existed. Hummel said with this new staircase she hopes that will change.
“This now means it is right front and centre, on a building, in the middle of campus. It’s great.”
While same-sex marriage has been legal in Canada for more than 10 years, Sydney Lawson, President of Okanagan Pride and Director of Transgender Community Development said that it’s taken a lot of work to get to this point. For many years Lawson said pride was about politics and raising awareness, but now it means something even more special.
“We’re getting to the point now where we actually get to celebrate a little bit and have some fun. We get to do special things like this to add a touch of colour to the world.”
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