May Volunteer of the Month: Murphy M.

June 1, 2015

This month we recognise Murphy M. for his dedication, passion and support of social justice. Murphy was born in New West, and first got involved with QMUNITY five years ago, when he started volunteering for our Pridespeaks program. Murphy goes into both elementary and high schools in order to run workshops designed to highlight and combat oppression, sexism, and oppressive language.

An example of the sort of impact his programming is having was when a youth at a workshop started the program saying ‘it should be illegal to be gay’ but at the end, commented that she had ‘no idea you were people just like us’. It is this sort of result that drives Murphy to continue with his volunteer work.

When he’s not running workshops, he runs an Etsy shop with his date-mate where he knits pride flag hats, and Cooper, his partner, knits whale mittens! He also enjoys musicals, his favourites being Les Miserables and Repo, The Genetic Opera. He loves to read sci-fi novels, and can be summed up by the quote ‘my entire life is defined by dogs’.

His social justice approach to the world is patient and compassionate when confronted by people who just need to be educated, but fuelled by his distress at the state of the world.

Murphy, we thank you for your funny, generous and kind contributions to the centre and to the world.