Celebrating Pride and Prioritizing Mental Health!

In June of 2023, The NYAC hosted a Pride Month Panel during #PrideMonth, bringing together incredible voices from the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and advocates.

Featured in this panel were Lee Kelly (she/her), program facilitator at Quadrangle NL and Nick Schiavo (he/him), executive director of No Conversion Canada.

Lee Kelly Lee is a transgender woman from Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador. Lee holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Folklore from Memorial University of Newfoundland and is currently enrolled at MUN as a part-time student in the Bachelor of Education (Post-Secondary) as a Second Degree program. Lee has experience working with the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, the disability community, and is passionate about human rights as well as diversity and inclusion.

Nick is the Executive Director of No Conversion Canada, a national, grassroots, nonprofit coalition he founded to ban conversion “therapy” in Canada. In December 2021, No Conversion Canada and partners successfully passed Bill C-4, officially outlawing conversion “therapy” in Canada. Over the years, Nick has been fortunate to work with a number of global institutions as a delegate, including the Commonwealth, the World Bank Group and the United Nations. He is passionate about community organizing and currently serves on the Government Relations Committee with the Canadian Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and was named one of “Canada’s Future Foreign Policymakers” by Open Canada in June 2018.

From sharing personal journeys to discussing crucial strategies for mental health support, our panelists sparked important conversations 💬

It’s vital that we create safe spaces for our community to discuss mental health openly, and this panel was a significant step towards that goal.

Let’s keep the conversation going! 💬💪 Check out the highlights in the picture linked to this page.