Lakeshore’s LGBTQ+ Resource Centre provides safe community space Lakeshore’s LGBTQ+ Resource Centre provides safe community space
Lakeshore’s LGBTQ+ Resource Centre provides safe community space
Martina Revalde at the Student Welcome and Resource Centre 
Photo credits: Victoria Hincapie Gomez

Lakeshore’s LGBTQ+ Resource Centre aims to provide students the chance of expanding their social group in a non-judgmental setting.

Martina Revalde, 23, says she first attended an orientation event last year in the LGBTQ+ Resource Centre to meet other LGBTQ+ students. 

“I wanted to meet people like me, I identify myself as bisexual but have been questioning my identity throughout the summer, I would say I’m within the demisexual spectrum,” she says. 

Revalde is from Cebu City, Philippines, and is enrolled in the marketing and graphic design diploma. 

She says she wishes to have had a space like the LGBTQ+ Resource Centre growing up.  

“Having a space like this back in the Philippines would’ve helped me, the Philippines is mainly a Catholic country, and growing up I was not aware of the many identities out there. I had to discover it all by myself,” she says.

Revalde says she came out to her parents last year and they didn’t have the best reaction. 

“I belong to a family that is still stuck in their traditional ways of thinking. I came out to my parents, and they were not happy. But after a few months, they realized they couldn’t change me, so they let me be. It is hard to go through life being different when the people closest to you don’t really accept you for who you are,” she says. 

The LGBTQ+ Resource Centre located in the second-floor at the Student Welcome and Resource Centre.
Photo credits: Victoria Hincapie Gomez 

LGBTQ+ Resource Centre Acting Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator Matthew Travill says students are always welcome to come in and make the space whatever they want it to be.
 
“The primary goal is creating safer, braver, and more positive spaces, and that translates into building community for people with different identities and backgrounds,” he says.

The LGBTQ+ Resource Centre first opened on North Campus in 2015, when the LCR building was inaugurated.

Travill has been working with the LGBTQ+ Resource Centre since 2018, two years after Lakeshore Campus centre opened. He graduated from Humber’s child and youth care diploma program in 2011. 

Travill says he wished the centre existed when he was a student. 

“There were no resources at the time, and to be honest I’m not sure if when I was in college I would have utilized a space such as this. I had not come to terms with my identity yet. I would’ve wished that it existed back then, but I’m happy that it exists now and that we can be a safe space for other people,” he says. 

Travill says spaces like the LGBTQ+ Resource Centre are easily overlooked. 

“Many people don’t feel safe in the spaces they go to throughout the day whether it is home or in the classroom. Students need a space where they can be their authentic selves, and where they can explore their identity in a non-judgemental setting,” he says. 

The centre provides resources from counseling to health care, and hosts community programs peer-led by students. On Sept.10, they hosted an LGBTQ+ mix n’ mingle orientation for students looking to meet like-minded people. 

Upcoming events include the Qrafty tote bag decorating on Sept. 24, which gives students the opportunity to explore their creativity while meeting other alumni. 

Learn more about the LGBTQ+ Resource Centre event programming and their resources at: https://humber.ca/lgbtq/resource-centre

 
                                                



Victoria Hincapie