Students elected to the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) board of directors in the spring elections typically have a few months to get settled into their roles before things really pick up in September, but not pride director Terence Baluyut.
Baluyut has hit the ground running with Pride month taking place only two months after his election. Despite the size of the task, Baluyut is enthusiastic, as this isn’t just his first Pride as a CCSS director, it’s his first Pride as an out gay man.
“I came into Camosun as a closeted queer person, and Camosun is actually an environment that [has] catalyzed me to come out of my shell,” says Baluyut. “And that just speaks to the environment that Camosun is, which is very accepting, and very accommodating to many identities.”
Having gotten so much from his experience so far, Baluyut’s looking forward to contributing to that sense of community.
“I’m really excited for what’s about to come on my term, I know that I am just in my second month, and through the help of my peers, and also our staff, we have been able to plan all of these exciting events,” he says.
While the CCSS is involved with a variety of community celebrations, it’s also putting on a few gatherings.
“We are organizing three main events,” says Baluyut. “First is the Rainbow Reels queer cinema nights. The other is Play with Pride, Uniting Through Diversity in Sports, that is in collaboration with the soccer club and the Camosun Chargers, both the volleyball and basketball teams. And the other one is the 5k Pride run and walk, that is in collaboration with the Camosun running club. So most of these… are all in collaborations with many circles in our college. One reason for this is I want to integrate the queer community in our college with all of [these] existing groups and have more bond within these circles.”
Baluyut is enthusiastic about bringing these different circles together, but he’s not under any illusion that the queer community is all the same. At every step, he’s taking care to make sure the varying needs of people from different backgrounds are taken into consideration.
“Even though I’m a part of this community, it still feels a bit overwhelming to step on a roll for a community that is so complex, and there’s so [many] things that we are trying to advocate to fight for,” he says. “In the LGBTQ+ community, there are still certain cohorts that are having more difficulties, and are deprived of many opportunities. And those are indeed [things] that I am trying to take note of, and creating more initiatives in the future to make sure that everyone is included and are also considered.”
This consideration is already being incorporated into Baluyut’s aspirations for the rest of his term.
“[I’d like] something that would have the 2SLGBTQIA+ members in our Camosun ommunity to be more connected to one another,” he says. “Because even though I see that there are a lot of members from this community in our campus, I haven’t seen them [very] connected.”
One of his main goals? Bringing the pride found at Lansdowne to the Interurban campus.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have a Pride Lounge [at] Interurban yet… I wanted more pride and 2SLGBTQIA+ related community events [at] both campuses,” says Baluyut. “Because as someone who attends Interurban campus, there [isn’t] really much for the… community that happens around on that campus.”
See instagram.com/ccsspride for event info.