Becoming an ally for the LGBTQ2S+ community

Jessica Charytoniuk, a parking clerk at the Grey Nuns Community Hospital, doesn’t normally participate in extracurricular work activities. But earlier this year, she found herself joining the LGBTQ2S+ Advisory Board at Covenant Health after donating pride pins and pronoun stickers for staff identification cards from her department for a pop-up table at the hospital during Pride Month.

“I was already fighting for (LGBTQ2S+) people in my personal life, and so this just all falls together, and it's just all connected,” she says. 

Jessica’s decision to become an advisory board member was based on her own experience of feeling marginalized as a person who lives with autism and on her involvement outside work with a social media group that addresses misinformation and propaganda about the war in Ukraine, which includes countering homophobic comments directed at group members online. These and other experiences have shown her that it’s important to be an ally, or advocate, for LGBTQ2S+ communities, she says.

“It’s extremely important to protect (LGBTQ2S+) people. They shouldn't be preyed upon so easily in this world. I feel like we need to stick together, and we need to power up and support each other.”  

Part of that support is making sure people in LGBTQ2S+ communities feel comfortable accessing health care. “It's not necessarily that people in these communities are being turned away from health care, it’s that they don't feel safe, and that needs to change.”

Another important step is recognizing the microaggressions ― demeaning comments or actions ― that can happen, especially in the workplace, with regards to sexual orientation, says Jessica. The easiest thing to do is to stand up and say something so that no one suffers. 

“We need to remember that even a small, small gesture can mean so much to the person who sees it,” she says.

Jessica and the other advisory board members are working on creating information packages and resources about LGBTQ2S+ issues for new nursing staff and students in collaboration with the Grey Nuns library staff. They are also looking to pass on information to the medical students interning with the mental health units at the Grey Nuns. The goal is to make sure everyone has access to what they need in an inclusive space, says Jessica.

When Jessica looks to the future for LGBTQ2S+ communities, she feels hope. “I think the next generations have a good handle on this. They are doing phenomenal things, and they're acting in phenomenal ways, and they're teaching us older generations a lot. They’re going to lead us forward.”