SILK

SILK is an educational program that provides English speaking high schools with free workshops geared to increase awareness and knowledge on sexual orientation, gender identity, diversity and inclusivity. This program aims to dispel homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, queerphobia, intersexism and heterosexism to help make schools a safer space for all students.

According to Egale’s School Climate Survey Report “Still In Every Class In Every School: Final report on the second climate survey on homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia in Canadian schools” (2021):

• 64% of all student participants reported hearing homophobic comments daily or weekly at school
• 30% of 2SLGBTQ respondents had been the victims of cyberbullying, compared to 8% of cisgender heterosexual respondents
• 57% of trans respondents had been targets of mean rumours or lies
• 62% of 2SLGBTQ respondents feel unsafe at school, compared to 11% of cisgender heterosexual students

A 2025 report from GRIS-Montréal, “Increase in Discomfort Levels: What High School Students Think About Sexual Diversity (2017–2024)“, also examined the changing attitudes towards LGBTQ+ in students. In this multi-year spanning study, they noted:

In response to these findings, our workshops aim to provide students of all sexual and gender identities with:

• a non-judgmental space within which to discuss issues of sexual and gender identity
• an opportunity to meet and connect with people from the queer and/or trans community, listen to their stories, and inspire empathy and allyship
• knowledge to identify queer and transphobic behaviour within their everyday interactions
• practical strategies to reduce this type of behaviour in everyday situations
• greater empathy with the struggle of growing up queer, trans or questioning one’s sexual or gender identity
• information about key resources available to youth in Montreal

Our volunteers are diverse in age, ethnocultural and religious backgrounds, gender identity, sexual orientation and personality, and have all passed rigorous training sessions.  They are all capable of speaking about a wide range of issues on sexual orientation, gender identity and diversity through open discussion and question and answers.  If you are interested in booking a workshop, send an e-mail to the following address: kimberly.wong@caeoquebec.org

Student Feedback

• Thank you very much for the presentation.  The personal experiences are helpful and they teach us a lot.  And the subjects were very interesting and thank you for being this open. A close family friend died last year from HIV. All my family was affected and I never learned the biological and personal things and issues behind this.
• I’m really happy for all of you 3 for being able to do what you do to get in front of people and telling your stories and it makes me more comfortable about myself being bisexual and I really appreciate you guys coming today and talking to us and giving us the numbers. Thank you.
• I truly enjoyed this presentation. I learned a lot about what LGBTQ is and I learned so many new words that I didn’t know before. I truly appreciated the speakers coming to tell their stories!
• This workshop helped me a lot on accepting who I am even more.
• You have changed my mind a lot on this subject. I shall try to erase these words [slurs] from my vocabulary.
• I found the workshop very helpful because initially I thought I already knew a lot about the LGBTQ+ community but I learned a lot more. Also I think that we all needed to hear that we have to stop using words like “gay” and “faggot” in such a negative manner. It’s a force of habit we have to break.
• It’s a pleasure to hear all your stories and though I know I’m not in the situation, I know it’ll definitely be helpful in the future — from an Ally
• Your stories are truly inspiring and encourages me to do something to make people aware.
• Thank you for making me feel comfortable with myself and my sexuality.
• I really enjoyed listening to your stories. you guys aren’t afraid to be who you are and good for you because so many people are afraid and you’re embracing it so yay!
• I found it very different to hear these stories. It doesn’t affect me as much as it can affect others, but this experience definitely did change my perspective.
• I like it because it make people realize that what they do or say can cause damage.
• Talking about such subjects can always make people feel uncomfortable but listening to the stories and getting to the knowledge was very interesting and comfortable.