Yes, agreement to what this person from AMS says **specifically to language at the door and how to welcome folks**.

At Bike Pirates we have run a successful Women & Trans Sundays programming for the past (almost) 6 years. We ran a workshop on this at Bike!Bike! this year. We are always happy to give advice or answer questions from folks looking to run similar programming. Come and visit or send us an email!

For about 6 months  a few years ago we had a volunteer running LGBTQ Hours once a month as a pilot project. At the end of the period it was decided that there was not a real need for this separate time from our participants, though the effort was appreciated.

Starting next month we are going to be running a pilot project running once-a-month Signing nights for deaf and hearing-impaired folks. We will have new volunteers coming in from the community with bike skills and ASL ability running skills workshops.

Ainsley - Bike Pirates Toronto.

On Fri, Oct 17, 2014 at 9:31 PM, AMS Bike Co-op <info@bikecoop.ca> wrote:
We have a Women & Queer night, once a month. Right now, we're looking at how/if we can expand this/split it into two different nights (with both still being trans-friendly). 

In terms of negative comments, we try to head them off at the pass in our event promotion by including wording like this: "If you don't self-identify as female and/or LGBTQ, feel free to invite one of your friends who does! And join us at our weekly P&Y night on Tuesdays from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. if you'd like to get involved in another of our programs."

When someone comes in the shop who reads like a cis-het man (for lack of a better way of phrasing that), I welcome them to Women & Queer night and say that they're welcome to stay if they identify as a woman and/or queer, but if they don't, we ask that they come back to the space another time (giving both shop time options & volunteer programming options). This generally works fairly well; sometimes we have to be a bit more assertive. 



On Fri, Oct 17, 2014 at 2:23 PM, Christopher Chan <chris.chan@edmontonbikes.ca> wrote:
>
> You're welcome to use text from our page:
>
> http://edmontonbikes.ca/women
>
> We are updating the name (women & trans) to include femme for ours, and we will likely also introduce a separate queer time as well.
>
> Christopher Chan
> Executive Director
> Edmonton Bicycle Commuters Society
>
> edmontonbikes.ca
>
> BikeWorks North • 9305 111 Ave • T5G 0A2 • 780-757-9100
> BikeWorks South • 8001 102 St • T6E 4A2 • 780-433-2453
> Cell • 780-756-7560
>
> On 17 Oct 2014 11:43, "Leslie Peteya" <lesliepeteya@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> We have both a women's night and a trans/queer night. Mainly, because we can serve the 2 different populations better.
>>
>> Our collective has had several intense discussions around why we need such nights. I explain the bro-chisimo environment of
>> fixing bikes, the masculine energy, some men's tendency to jump and offer to 'help', discomfort felt by queer/trans populations in
>> interacting with homophobic patrons, women's historic acculturation to be accommodating and not speak up, as and maybe I just want to hang out with my fellow women and share cupcakes, as all reasons for having these nights.
>>
>> Best,
>> Leslie
>> Durham Bike Co-op
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 17, 2014 at 1:23 PM, Judith Feist <judith.feist@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Good Afternoon all,
>>>
>>> I was just wondering what shops out there have specific shop nights dedicated to a specific group of individuals...Do you have literature you hand out to folks who ask questions about this specific shop night? How do you run it? I would like to host an evening where folks who identify as women/trans are able to come work on/learn about bike maintenance/safety in a welcoming environment...
>>>
>>> Any info is helpful. Especially concerning how you respond to negative comments pertaining to such evenings...
>>>
>>> I hope everyone is well and thank you, in advance, for any information. It's greatly appreciated.
>>>
>>> --
>>> judith caroline feist
>>>
>>> "i don' think my art is political. i think it's about the stuff that doesn't let me sleep at night." -felix gonzalez-torres
>>>
>>> I think [the bicycle] has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world...It gives a woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance.~Susan B. Anthony
>>>
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>>>
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--

AMS Bike Co-op
University of British Columbia
6138 Student Union Blvd | Vancouver, BC | V6T 1Z1
604-822-2453 | bikecoop.ca | @ubcbike

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