Laurier expert alert: Pride Month

June 1, 2021
For Immediate Release

Waterloo – Pride Month is celebrated every year in June in cities across Canada. Wilfrid Laurier University has experts who can speak about discrimination against the LGBTQ2S+ community, community health and related topics. Read about how Laurier is celebrating Pride Month. 

Todd Coleman, assistant professor in the Department of Health Sciences, is an expert on LGBTQ2S+ community health, HIV/AIDS and sexual health. He is available for comment on LGBTQ2S+ community health, the prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and on how health issues and access to health care differ according to sexual orientation and gender identities. Read about his research on the experiences of trans people in Waterloo Region. Contact: tcoleman@wlu.ca

Morgan Holmes, professor in the Department of Sociology and visiting research fellow at Egale Canada, is an expert on sexuality, health and social justice. She has written extensively about the effects of diagnosing and treating intersex infants and children, the ethics of consent to elective surgery for minors and laws related to sexuality and health. 

Maryam Khan, assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Work, is an expert on racialized sexual, gender, religious and ethnic minorities, especially LGBTQ+ Muslims in the global North. As a social worker, she has more than 10 years of clinical and community-based experience in mental health and recovery, substance use and addictions, suicide prevention and crisis management, violence against women and gender-variant persons, poverty and homelessness. She is currently studying the social service and programming needs of non-binary, queer and trans Muslims in Canada and the service needs of sexually and gender-diverse Muslims and their families, in partnership with Salaam Canada, with grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Maryam was recently honoured with the 2021 CBRCanada Emerging Community-Based Researcher Award. Contact: mkhan@wlu.ca

Cameron McKenzie, assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Work, is currently studying the policies and programs in place to address health inequity in the LGTBQ2S+ community, as well as the class dimensions of LGBTQ2S+ discrimination. In 2019, he submitted a paper on the development of a federal LGBTQ2S+ health equity strategy to a House of Commons standing committee. Previously, he’s studied controversies within Ontario’s sex education curriculum and historical perspectives on the gay/queer liberation movement. Contact: camckenzie@wlu.ca

Michael Woodford, professor in Laurier’s Faculty of Social Work, is an expert on the mental health and well-being of LGBTQ2S+ youth. Woodford’s research explores how bullying and other forms of discrimination can increase LGBTQ2S+ youth's risk for poor mental health and other negative outcomes, as well as the factors that can foster resilience. Woodford is leading the Thriving on Campus Study, a province-wide survey exploring the experiences, mental health and academic success of LGBTQ2S+ university students in Ontario. Read more about his work. Contact: mwoodford@wlu.ca