Intertwining joy and resilience

Pride Month is a time to celebrate the 2SLGBTQ+ community and advocate for 2SLGBTQ+ rights.

The Yellow House Student Centre for Equity and Inclusion is one of several campus groups hosting events in June for the Queen’s community to engage, learn, and connect.

“Pride is a chance for community to come together, celebrate and show 2SLGBTQ+ students, staff, and faculty that they belong here. I am so proud of the work the Yellow House and our campus partners do to make that support visible all year, not just in June,” said Interim Vice-Provost and Dean of Student Affairs, Corinna Fitzgerald.

"The theme for Kingston Pride this year is ‘Resilience & Liberation in Action,’ and so much of our joy is intertwined with our continued fight. Pride means honouring the people who spoke up amid hostility and paved the way for us and standing in solidarity with those doing that hard work today. We need to have the courage to support our changemakers every day, not just celebrate the success of the past from the safety of the future,” said Sexual and Gender Diversity Advisor Kel Martin.

Yellow House’s Pride activities will help members of the Queen’s and local communities connect during Kingston Pride celebrations. The centre will host a booth at the Pride Community Fair at Confederation Basin on Saturday, June 13, from 10am-4pm. Bringing together student staff representatives from offices and centres across Queen’s to share resources and support booth activities such as free face painting and a community mural. In addition to leading activities at the booth at the community fair, Yellow House student staff will be designing the centre’s Instagram posts highlighting Queer history in Kingston and events happening throughout Pride month.

To help Queen’s community members prepare for the Kingston Pride Parade on Saturday June 13, Yellow House student staff will co-host their annual sign-making event in partnership with the Queen’s Faculty of Education Gender and Sexualities Alliance (GSA) on June 9, 1-4 p.m. at 140 Stuart Street. All supplies are provided – come make a sign and share your voice at Pride. Members of the Queen’s community are also invited to join the Faculty of Education GSA, as well as Queer Association of Queen’s Employees (QUAQE), an employee resource group at Queen’s, to march in the Kingston Pride Parade. Both groups will have banners to identify them and will be meeting at 11 a.m. beside the splash pad/park at the Memorial Centre before the parade leaves from the nearby staging area at noon.

Three people standing over a table with paintbrushes, in front of house.

Yellow House team members prepare a paint by number activity at the Pride Sign Making event in 2024.

Yellow House: Events and Initiatives

Yellow House works year-round to support 2SLGBTQ+ students through one-on-one advising, resource development, and institutional change projects. This includes addressing systemic barriers for 2SLGBTQ+ student’s, staff, and faculty through the Principal’s Action Group on Gender and Sexual Diversity (PAGGAS) which is working on improving gender-inclusive washrooms across campus, a more inclusive name change process, and the Pride 365 project.

Yellow House staff host events throughout the year for 2SLGBTQ+ students, often with Queen’s and community partners. Recent collaborations include a gender shorts film screening with Reelout Queer Film Festival, Solidarity Swims with Athletics and Recreation, Gender Splendor & Queer Scribbles therapy circles of with Student Wellness Services, a Gender Diverse Song Circle with Beyond the Binary, and TransFamily Kingston, Digital Storytelling with It Gets Better Canada, clothing modification sessions with AGNES, and a talent and fashion show with Social Issues Commission. Yellow House also runs movie screenings, art events, and dinners with community partners and student clubs.

Learn more at the Yellow House website and stay up to date on their events and initiatives on Instagram.

Yellow House: Gender Diverse Wellness Retreat

During the summer Yellow House staff reflect on the past year of work supporting 2SLGBTQ+ students and plan for the year ahead alongside their summer student staff.

The third annual Gender Diverse Wellness Retreat brought together 31 trans, non-binary, genderqueer, agender, and other gender diverse students in April for three days at Queen’s University Biological Station at Elbow Lake with five gender diverse facilitators and eight gender diverse student staff. The retreat gave students space to make connections, reflect and celebrate their identities. Shannon Gendon, a 2SLGBTQ+ psychotherapist from Student Wellness Services, helped plan and facilitate the retreat with a focus on therapeutic spaces and student wellness.

three people standing on pier by the lake.

Student attendees enjoy the lake at the Gender Diverse Wellness Retreat 2026. Photo taken by Samantha Papilla.

More than 40 gender diverse people with diverse lived experiences gathered for the three-day retreat. Attendees canoed on the lake, roasted marshmallows around the fire, played board games and Dungeons & Dragons, beaded, painted, and kept journals. They shared meals, took nature walks, and joined wellness activities including intention-setting and debrief circles.

Following the retreat, students were asked to share feedback on the impact this experience had on them for future students considering the retreat. One student shared that “it made my soul feel at home, and I felt like I could just exist as I was without external pressure or judgement. It was such a fun time and a beautiful experience.” Another shared, “the retreat helped me to understand that if I feel like I’m the weirdest and queerest person in the room and that nobody gets me, I’m just in the wrong room! I will cherish the things I learned about myself this weekend forever.”

Attendees who were newer to gender diverse spaces said they felt welcomed. “I have never felt safer or more welcomed than I did on this retreat. I was worried that I would feel excluded or like an imposter because I am just beginning to explore my gender identity, but this was not the case at all,” one attendee wrote. “I felt so affirmed and supported, and on top of that, it was so much fun. If you are considering it at all, do it!”