The Rainbow Coalition Conference for local students just keeps growing.
The annual Upper Grand District School Board event for students in Grade 7 through 12+ that celebrates, supports and provides resources for LGBTQ youth and their allies took place Friday at the
A total of 250 students from 25 different high schools and elementary schools participated in the day-long event.
Keynote speakers and a variety of workshops led by professionals, community members and students focused on anti-bullying, anti-homophobia, anti-biphobia and anti-transphobia education.
Jeremy Bravo-Eby, who has been part of the organizing team for the event since it was rebooted five years ago, said the event's growth has been "amazing."
"The level of interest from the kids seems to grow each year," said Bravo-Eby, who teaches at
"We've gone from appealing to schools trying to collect kids to come to having to turn schools away because we have too many applicants. It's been amazing in terms of student engagement."
Bringing in some higher profile keynote speakers has helped grow the event's popularity, Bravo-Eby said.
This year’s keynote was Kate Reid, a musician-activist based in
Reid's funny and poignant songs were interspersed with equally funny and poignant banter.
Closet Fem was a song about how when she first came out as queer she thought all lesbians dressed a certain way, not realizing it was okay to wear "feminine" attire.
Then there was Emergency Dyke Project, another that was a "gay cowboy song" and another poked fun at Katy Perry's pop hit I Kissed A Girl.
Sang Reid: "I've kissed a girl and I liked it too/ In fact, I've kissed a few in my day/ so how come I'm not famous for it yet?"
Reid encouraged the students in attendance to spread the word.
"Be a sponge, soak up as much as you can, take this really great stuff that you're learning here today and stuff that you're thinking and feeling and take it back to your schools," Reid told the audience."
Thursday's workshops were led by professionals, community members and students.
Workshops at this year’s conference included sessions on how to be an effective ally, sessions on gender binary and identity, workshops on mental wellness, coming out, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and more.
Bravo-Eby said one of the purposes of the event is to educate and enlighten students and give them information and tools that they will then take back to their schools to be shared.
"That's the hope: that they'll leave here today with a lot of new learning and a lot of positive energy and take that back to share with their teachers, their circle of friends and the groups they work with in their home schools," Bravo-Eby said.
"It's become more widely-known with both the teachers and the students within the board."
