We will be hosting an “Open House within an Open House” in place of having our regular monthly meeting, during the 519’s Open House to celebrate the completion of their renovations. Also, Queer Ontario was approached by the Rainbow Health Network (RHN) to share the space with us. Thus, during this period of time, we’ll have a welcoming table with literature about ourselves on it and sign up sheets to promote our group and encourage people to join. Given that this will be taking place during our regular monthly meeting time, we hope that many of you would be willing to come out to this event to talk up Queer Ontario and encourage others to get involved.
.
Thanks to all those that came out to Buddies to help us launch the group! .
If you missed it, check out this archive of tweets, pics and posts from the CLGRO Farewell – Queer Ontario Launch. .
Also take a look at the CLGRO slide show, featuring clippings and photos from the Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives. .
We’ve also posted the speech Queer Ontario’s Nick Mulé delivered at the launch.
Finally, here’s the video from our Speakers Corner!
Tonight we are celebrating two momentous occasions at once, the farewell to a leading provincial lgbt rights organization and the launching of a new queer rights organization in Ontario.
You have already heard from Tom the kinds of groundbreaking work the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Ontario (CLGRO) undertook throughout its 34 plus year history. From the long hard won battles of getting ‘sexual orientation’ included in the Ontario Human Rights Code to getting same-sex relationships recognized; from sex laws concerns such as parks and washroom arrests and bathhouse raids to a critique of the policing of our communities; from arguing for our inclusion in employment equity and disability legislations to challenging ignorance regarding our issues in the health care, social service and education systems; CLGRO blazed a trail in this province demonstrating that the lesbian, gay, bisexual and in the latter years transgender communities were one to be reckoned with, sending reverberations throughout the country and internationally with its pioneering work and progressive social analysis. Read more…
The Pressing Issues Survey
We are still receiving feedback through our Pressing Issues Survey, to get a sense of the issues facing LGBTQ* Ontarians today. A link to the survey can be found here.
The Queer Ontario Think Tank
We are also accepting written and other multimedia works for our ideas space -- the Queer Ontario Think Tank. To read more about it, or to learn how to submit a work, follow the link here.
Queer Ontario is a not-for-profit organization operating on funds provided to us by our generous and capable supporters. Your donation will be channeled directly into our projects and operations, which will help us continue our educational and reformist work.
Unfortunately, because our mandate is deeply political, we cannot acquire charitable status and, as such, will be unable to issue you with a charitable tax receipt. We encourage your support in light of this systemic shortfall.
You can use our one-time donation option as many times as you would like:
Or, you can become a sustaining donor by contributing to Queer Ontario on a monthly basis.
We appreciate your ongoing generosity and support -- The Queer Ontario Steering Committee.
