{"id":17532,"date":"2017-06-14T16:02:07","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T20:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17532"},"modified":"2017-06-21T16:51:59","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T20:51:59","slug":"somewhere-under-the-rainbow-is-right-here-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/somewhere-under-the-rainbow-is-right-here-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Somewhere “Under the Rainbow” is right here, right now"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite being out for \u201cmany, many years\u201d there was a time when Nyk Morrigan had doubts.
\nThey doubted themselves, they doubted who they were, and life was difficult.
\nIdentifying as gender fluid, a person who does not define themselves by any one particular gender, Morrigan was at a loss and attempted to end their life, but after a long road of healing and seeking wellness, they are working hard to make sure local LGBTQ+ youth have the resources they need to keep well and pursue the paths that make them happy.
\nMorrigan sought help with the Aurora-based Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) and, once a client, now helps lead their Under the Rainbow program, which provides a safe, welcoming space run by peers where sexual and gender diversity is celebrated.
\nUnder the Rainbow brought together scores of LGBTQ+ people of all ages, as well as allies, to the Aurora Cultural Centre on Saturday for the Queer Wellness Festival. A collaboration between Under the Rainbow, the AIDS Committee of York Region, York Pride Fest, and the York Region Gay Straight Alliance, the Queer Wellness Festival was an opportunity to learn more about wellness from a holistic perspective and the resources available in our community to help achieve those end goals.
\nOpened with a smudging ceremony, attended by the CMHA\u2019s MOBYSS bus, and featuring entertainment from singer Kate Reid and comedian Chantel Marostica, Morrigan said it was an \u201chonour\u201d to be part of a team making such an event possible.
\n\u201cI know there are a lot of challenges, high rates of suicide, high rates of depression and anxiety here in the community and, to me, having the honour and privilege of working with such an incredible team to make change for this community and my community is so important to me,\u201d says Morrigan.
\n\u201cUnder the Rainbow is a support and social group for members of the queer community and we do social events where it is just a place to enjoy each other\u2019s company and have fun and be silly and laugh, but it is also a place to have conversation and open up dialogue on what is really happening with individuals, and how we can make change.\u201d
\nIt is also an honour to be working in close partnership with organizations such as the AIDS Committee, and York Pride Fest, they said, noting York Pride Fest has invited the CMHA to lead this Saturday\u2019s York Region Pride Parade on Main Street Newmarket.
\nJudy Garland may have sung about that special somewhere \u201cOver the Rainbow\u201d but here in York Region, that rainbow is turned upside down to provide an all-encompassing umbrella for everyone who can fit under it. Since its inception three years ago, Under the Rainbow has grown but, according to Morrigan, there is still work to be done.
\n\u201cI think there needs to be a little bit more outreach with respect to finding more individuals to come, but I think that has a lot to do with the fact York Region is huge and there are a lot of different services that are available for people to get support,\u201d they said. \u201cBut, because York Region is so huge I don\u2019t know that the visibility is quite there yet. We\u2019re just working on trying to create more visibility and to show there are services that are accepting and open to supporting individuals.\u201d
\nAlmost as soon as they became involved in Under the Rainbow, Morrigan said they quickly came to see that the \u201csimplest thing can have the biggest impact.\u201d
\n\u201cThe fact it exists is the impact I am really proud of,\u201d they said. \u201cI am also really proud of this agency and seeing how it has been open to supporting individuals like myself who have not only grown through the agency as a client but also as a staff member who has a valuable contribution and is open to hearing how we can think outside of the box to support individuals like myself who identify as gender fluid. I just feel really proud to be part of an agency that supports that and wants to collaborate \u2013 not work individually but collaborate with other agencies to promote queer wellness in whatever way we can do that.\u201d
\nFor the individuals gathered at the Aurora Cultural Centre on Saturday, that message was clear.
\nLooking over the roster of seminars and worships set to take place throughout the evening \u2013 and even ahead for the balance of Pride Month \u2013 Morrigan said they hoped visitors would leave knowing that options and, perhaps most importantly, hope were out there and attainable.
\n\u201cI think the most important thing is queerness exists in all ages and all socio-economic backgrounds,\u201d they said. \u201cQueerness is not something that is static, it is very fluid \u2013 it moves \u2013 and I want to promote not only cohesiveness but also acceptance of such a diverse community. This community is so big and huge and the experience of an 80 year old person who might be queer is going to be very different than that of a 20 year old person who identifies.
\n\u201cI use the word queer because I personally feel it is a larger umbrella term that really does incorporate a lot of different identities, but I understand that I have to be very clear that gender identity and sexual identity are two separate things and they are mutually exclusive. The two act as supporting walls for each other to say you have a community and you are accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more on the programs offered by the Canadian Mental Health Association of York Region, including Under the Rainbow, visit cmha-yr.on.ca. For a full list of this weekend\u2019s Pride activities in York Region, including the Fifth Annual York Region Pride Parade, set for a 10.30 a.m. start this Saturday, June 17, on Main Street Newmarket, visit yorkpridefest.com.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Despite being out for \u201cmany, many years\u201d there was a time when Nyk Morrigan had doubts. They doubted themselves, they doubted who they were, and life was difficult. Identifying as gender fluid, a person who does not define themselves by any one particular gender, Morrigan was at a loss and attempted to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/2017-06-15-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4yM","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 17:06:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}