On Feb. 26 Chatelech Secondary School's Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) with the help of the National Film Board of Canada held a showing of the movie My Prairie Home by Chelsea Macmullan.
This is a documentary-musical about Rae Spoon, a female to male transgender, singer/songwriter and author. It focuses on their childhood growing up in a broken home, as well as their struggle to find out who they truly were. All the songs are written and sung by Spoon. They tell their story to get their voice out there as support for the LGBTQ communities all over Canada and the world.
Even though around 20 people showed up from the community to watch this movie, it gave the Chatelech GSA a sense of which aspects of the Sunshine Coast support their goals for the community.
"We would like to thank School District 46 and Chatelech Secondary for allowing our GSA to have been formed and get to this point," said president Brychan Light during the opening speech before the movie. "We have been around for about six years now, and we hope to be around for years to come."
All the feedback from the viewers after the movie was positive, and many were thankful to the GSA for showing them this movie.
"The students in both the Chatelech and Elphinstone GSAs are strongly committed to supporting inclusion and preventing bullying," said teacher Paddy McCallum. "Showing this film was their way of continuing an important conversation about respecting differences in any and all communities, including school communities. They're extremely grateful to the educators and community members who came out to support their efforts."
The GSA ended up raising more than $100 to put towards resources, education and awareness, thanks to the wonderful community support. This may include bringing Ivan E. Coyote and Rae Spoon to our community in the near future or bringing in other LGBTQ events, movies and resources.
