Photos by Mark Burnham
Samonte Cruz grew up in a rural area, so when he come out as queer around the age of 16, he was one of the only queer people that was out at his high school. He endured daily harassment, from being called a “dyke” in the hallway to getting his tires slashed, and these years were marked with feelings of isolation, fear, and loneliness — all of which drew him to helping people later in life. When he was 19, he came out as trans, and his college years were transitional ones.
“I knew that it was wrong for me to be targeted this way, and I didn’t have any community or resources,” he says. Because of this lack of education, his college years were overwhelming; he not only had to come to terms with his own identity, but also to educate everybody around him.
“I think if I could have just focused on myself, I would have been in a much better place,” he admits. It is for this reason that he’s so passionate about providing education and resources as Out On Campus’ office and volunteer coordinator. OOC is looking to change that title to “program and volunteer coordinator” as the position begins to focus more on program development and education.
For some years after he graduated university, Samonte did media-focused work with youth, including with BC-based Access to Media Education Society, which works with marginalized populations to put out media from their perspective. Always an active organizer in the LGBT community, Samonte got hired as staff at SFU’s Out On Campus in 2006.
“Not being a student, I’ve got more resources than some other folks here, whose main focus is going to be school,” he says of his position. “With some of the programs we’re hoping to start, we’re trying to take some of the pressure off of the individuals to be able to feel like there’s some outside support for them, make space for people to not have to be those educators, but . . . if they do want to take an educational role, there is that program for that.”
Samonte shows the same drive in his personal life, no matter what it throws him. Three years ago, he was hit by an SUV and was left with a broken neck, and stuck in an upper body and neck brace for three months. Through the support of his co-workers and the community, he recovered and has since continued his work at OOC, as avid as ever.
The focus lies on education, and OOC members have been going to classrooms to talk about the difference between sex and gender; they’re looking to take it further, however, and expand this into educational programs.
“Even though there are a lot of benefits in Canada, there are still a lot of issues that make it so it’s not safe for people to come out, and it’s gonna take a long time for these issues to be resolved,” says Samonte. “Our hope is that we can break down some of those stereotypes and prejudices that are being perpetuated in larger society, and actually change something on a bigger scale. For us, here, education is the way to do that.”
Why support Out On Campus? “Everybody is affected by homophobia and transphobia, regardless of how you identify. We all have genders and we all have sexualities and the restrictions that are enforced upon queer and trans folks are also enforced against folks that don’t identify that way,” says Samonte. “By working on these issues, it doesn’t just liberate queer and trans folks, it will liberate everyone to be able to express themselves however they want to.”
March 11 marks Queer Awareness Week, which will include workshops on gender identity, a movie screening, and a series of dialogues and panel discussions with some of the campus’s Christian groups.
