We welcome everyone at Take Back the Night York Region!
We invite community members of any and all (or no) genders. And yes, to be clear, that does include men — whether they are survivors or not.
Our TBTN focuses on gender-based violence, which is violence that targets people with marginalized genders (e.g., women, trans people, gender non-conforming people, etc.). The umbrella of gender-based violence can include sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and human sex trafficking, among others. While these kinds of violence are disproportionately experienced by marginalized genders, there are survivors of every/no gender. We do not want survivors, no matter their gender, to feel unwelcome or like they must disclose their survivor status in order to participate.
As a committee, we also realize that overcoming gender-based violence cannot happen if we do not include everyone in the process. This is not just an issue for people with marginalized genders. This is a community issue — a human rights issue! We must stand up as a community and make it clear that we won’t tolerate this anymore.
We hope that more men and non-women join our fight against gender-based violence. By standing beside us and against patriarchal violence, they can encourage even more men to join us and model a more helpful and healthy model of masculinity for men and boys.
We hope to see you there!
