Evening to all of you out there. I hope as always this finds you well and happy. I am taking a break from my regularly scheduled review (or rant) to get a tad more serious then I have in a while. As you may or may not know tomorrow is the Day of Pink. In the event you are not aware, the Day of Pink is a day to stand up against Bullying and Homophobia. The day began to speak out against bullying towards a student in a Nova Scotia highschool and has since grown into a global awareness campaign.
If you have read some of my earlier posts you may know that I work for the Royal Bank of Canada. Last year when the Day of Pink (DOP) came about we had little to no coverage within our workplace about this activity. However this year, to my pleasant surprise, this has not only reached the "powers that be" at RBC but has filtered into branches (I work in a contact center.) I am moved beyond words that an event that is no very personal to every human being on the planet is part of a billion dollar corporations priorities. I am already very proud to work at RBC. Its values mirror my own and I appreciate that I have the opportunity to blossom. However, seeing the company come together over something that many people consider to "not be an issue" is heartwarming and unbelievably motivating. What makes me even more proud to be working for RBC is the people. As the only openly gay female (that I know of) and even more so, the only women I know who identifies as Gender Queer, I have never felt left out or even harassed due to my sexual orientation or outward appearance. Yes, like every gay individual, I have had to explain a few things to my hetero colleagues but these were always cases of genuine interest and never anything in the context of discrimination or ignorance. All this to say that I work in an amazing environment surrounded by amazing people. And I say this to anyone who works with me daily, YOU ARE RBC and you are what makes me proud!
I am moved by the amount of attention the DOP has received. All too many bullying cases and discrimination situations go unnoticed or worse are not even dealt with. I defy you to find one person in your surroundings who has not been bullied for one reason or another. We live in a society filled with a variety of social networking sites and means to communicate between ourselves. Unfortunately, we also leave ourselves open to harassment through those same means. We can be reached by facebook, myspace (yes that still exists,) BBM, MSN, facetime, email ... and those tools can easily be used against us to turn our lives into what some may consider hell. We put our whole lives out there on these mediums and they can all be used against us so easily. And when the harassing starts in rarely ends in any way that does not leave the user scared or worse. Yet we continue to bare our souls to the universe (present company included) without a second thought.
So I plead to you all gentle readers to take this fight to your cities, towns, schools, workplace. Do not tolerate the intolerable. Do not stand idly by and watch one more person shrink into obscurity. Stand up for those who are not ready to stand up for themselves. BECOME A ROLEMODEL!. Stand tall and proud, because you, YOU are the future and you have the power to mold it into anything you want it to me. I am proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with you in the fight.
I leave you with resources that may help.
BullyingCanada: http://www.bullyingcanada.ca/
FCKH8T: http://fckh8.com/Bullies/
Be strong my friends...
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