About the Project
Queer Love as Revolution was created as part of Do You Mind: Safer Dating For 2S/LGBTQIA+ Youth, a brand-new adaptation of Community Based Research Center’s (CBRC) popular Do You Mind? Program. This version of the program was designed by CBRC as part of a national project to address dating violence in the 2S/LGBTQIA+ community. It was delivered to underserved populations in four regions of the country: Nova Scotia, Quebec, Manitoba, and British Columbia. The aim of the program is to enhance youth knowledge, skills, and behaviours to prevent and address youth dating violence and maintain healthy relationships, while also providing paraprofessional experience to 2SLGBTQIA+ youth.
The program consisted of 2 parts:
- Part 1: A 2-day, in-person, interactive workshop in which participants will strengthen their knowledge and capacity to respond and prevent dating violence.
- Part 2: A year-long initiative in which youth participants developed and delivered their own Capstone Community Project (this zine) to a local audience.
About the Zine
The goal of Queer Love as Revolution is to prevent youth dating violence in 2S/LGBTQIA+ communities by filling in gaps of knowledge that can contribute to 2S/LGBTQIA+ youth being more at risk of experiencing dating violence than their cisgender and heterosexual counterparts. This zine provides culturally relevant information on healthy relationships, and signs, strategies, and resources for if a relationship becomes unhealthy or abusive, which is often lacking in conventional sex and relationship education.
Additionally, youth program participants wanted to provide a space for 2S/LGBTQIA+ youth to see examples of healthy queer relationships, since there is a large gap of representation in media. So, included in this zine are 23 art pieces submitted by 2S/LGBTQIA+ youth in Nova Scotia based on their own experiences of dating and relationships.
In creating Queer Love as Revolution, participants are continuing the tradition that zines have had in our community to help share health information to a population that is often left behind by conventional health care systems. Compiling this information in an easily accessible format, allows this information to be shared more broadly, hopefully preventing more young people from experiencing harm in their relationships.
Thank you
A huge thank-you goes to the participants of the program: Annika Setterington, Emma MacDonald, Kwan Ki Tsoi, Renwick M., Angus Monroe, and Sade London whose hard work and dedication to this project meant that this wonderful new resource now exists and can be shared with the community. Thank you to all of the artists who submitted their beautiful pieces of art to be displayed in this zine. To Shannon Long, who was able to take all of this collaborative work and turn it into one cohesive and visually stunning document. Thank you to all the members of our Multi-level Stakeholder Intervention Team for all your input and expertise on this project. Thank you to the funders on this project for providing us the means to do this important work and help make our communities safer.
Tell Us What You Think!
Please fill out this survey to let us know what you think of the zine! This will help us make more projects like this in the future.