River Pereira And Changing Victoria’s Convocation Ceremony

Program: Drama

Year: 3rd

Hobbies: Poetry, songwriting, acting, and singing.

Fun fact: “I played Mark Cohen in a university production of Rent and it Changed Me.”

The interview began with the same words as River’s speech on convocation day, 2016: “Hello there! My name is River, I use they/them pronouns, and I am trans.” I remember when River first said that, the way the room went sort of quiet, the way the administrative members on stage suddenly looked uncomfortable. The speech hadn’t begun the way they’d thought it would, and it definitely wouldn’t end the way they’d planned either.

In River’s first year, convocation was a very different sort of ceremony. “Essentially what happens is you get split into two groups – men and women – and you each go through separate ceremonies, signing books that other members of the college have signed before you, getting pins to signify your place in the college, etc.” Skipping forward to 2016, the third year student now found themselves on the orientation committee when the traditional ceremonies were brought up. Changes had been made in the past to attempt to welcome trans students, but in both cases, students had been “questioned when they joined the gendered group that didn’t seem to ‘fit’ their presentation, and a number of non-binary students simply didn’t show up because of their discomfort with having to be gendered at all.”

The suggestion to change traditionals was met with heavy backlash. “People were saying ‘It’ll be too complicated’, a lot of talk about ‘logistics’ and how these were somehow more relevant or important than y’know the comfort of trans students.” But with a lot of effort, pushing, and emotional labour, River finally got what the school needed: a safe traditional ceremony for all students, regardless of gender or lack thereof.

Why’d they do it? “I want Vic to be as inclusive as it parades itself to be and I didn’t think having a harmful practice like gender-segregated traditional ceremonies as a way to welcome people into a supposedly equitable college was really the way to go. I did it because trans people and trans voices are important…To a larger extent, I hope Vic continues making similar changes. Once upon a time we were one of the first colleges to allow women in. Vic can be progressive if it tries and I want it to keep trying and keep welcoming new identities and new people, not just by paying lipservice and preaching acceptance but by actively accepting people and making an effort to change to be better.”

“There is still much to be done at Vic as well as on the entire campus, specifically talking about trans people’s rights. There are many members of the administration as well as profs here who need to educate themselves and try harder to make their students feel comfortable. I got a taste of that this frosh week. While the change ended up happening, the Dean still referred to me as a “woman who was speaking at our Traditional Ceremonies” to a room of silent dons who knew me and knew the mistake she made. There is still silence from cis students in the face of these micro-aggressions who consider themselves allies but stay silent. There are individuals like Jordan Peterson being given a platform to speak and spread their faulty, uninformed message. This university has consistently given voice to people with hateful messages. This is not okay. I want us to be able to move in the direction of being more accepting and creating real change. I want to see more positive spaces, more positive dialogue, more discussion. I know in the past few months I’ve been inspired by people who have been working to keep trans students safe, to preserve our voices, members of the community who have not backed down in the face of hate but have risen above it and continued to fight. I want to be one of those people, which is why I decided to take on the position of leading VicPride! (Vic’s LGBTQ+ Group). I want to be one of those people who instigate and create the spaces and the changes that will allow marginalized folks to flourish and thrive here rather than living in fear.”