Last Thursday, OUT@UTM hosted its annual Buttons Day, an event that aims to take students’ minds off midterms and the many stresses that accompany school by getting them to make buttons.
To take part, students had to pay $2. Members of OUT@UTM made and sold the buttons at a table set up outside the Student Centre. Displays featuring information about events that OUT@UTM held during the current academic year were set up along alongside displays of older events.
These also included information on what OUT@UTM is and who’s involved, as well as how students can participate.
Buttons sold fast, whether a self-made design, a design printed off the internet or a pre-made design by OUT@UTM executives,
“The upside to this event is its stress-free factor,” said Harla Receno, an OUT@UTM executive. “During the summer, our executive team decided that one of our primary goals for this year was to do more outreach and educational events that highlighted LGBTQ issues in and around our school community. We achieved that through Queer Orientation, Pride Week, Expression Against Oppression and Gender and Genocide Week.”
In contrast to other events held or co-hosted by OUT@UTM, Buttons Day is a low-key event where members and allies can gather for a simple and non-stressful reason, to make buttons. Buttons Day generally attracts many visitors as well as customers. This year was no different.
“The great thing about Buttons Day is that different kinds of people come out to the event,” said Receno. “It doesn’t matter that it’s an OUT event, people come regardless. We get a whole range of people from LGBTQ members, allies, and even, non-allies. People love buttons since it’s a fun, unique way to show off their personality.”
With the high demand for buttons, OUT@UTM has decided to continue Buttons Day every Thursday until the end of March. This will be included in the March Movie Madness event that OUT@UTM currently hosts. During this event, films are screened throughout the week for students wishing to take a breather from studying and working on final assignments.
“With elections, we’ve had students wanting to buy buttons in bulk for sole the purpose of disturbing last minute campaign material for next week,” added Receno. “We even had one student who wanted to quickly jot something down on paper, turn it into a button, and later present it as a romantic gesture to their partner.”
