Out Olympian Blake Skjellerup and Q-Youth Executive Director Seb Stewart have made their first pit stops in their diversity tour of New Zealand schools. The men are visiting regional campuses so Skjellerup can give assembly talks, after a successful first foray into school halls in the Nelson/Tasman region. The speed skater is sharing his inspiring story of becoming a professional athlete, then coming out. The Anti-Bullying and Diversity Tour, which is supported by the Human Rights Commission, PPTA and Children's Commissioner, is promoting the newly created Queer Straight Alliance (QSA) Network Aotearoa. The pair is stopping in at schools from Kataia to Invercargill and yesterday kicked things off at Kaitaia College, Stewart's former school, when he got up and spoke. In a fun in-car video update, Skjellerup says it was very successful. "They were very receptive," he says, adding that the school has a fantastic peer mentor system already in place. "They were very interested in learning more about how they could support their queer students. It was fantastic." Today they went to Mangakahia Area School, while Northland College is the next stop. Check out their video update below.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 8th June 2011 - 2:11pm