Archive

Posts Tagged ‘Ottawa’

Queer Ontario Meet-and-Greet in Ottawa

July 11th, 2012 Comments off

..
Hello Everyone,
.

We are pleased to announce that we will be in Ottawa on Saturday, July 14, 2012. Alana Boltwood, our Research & Education Committee Chair, will be at the PTS offices (251 Bank Street, Suite 301) seeking to meet many of you to discuss some of the issues that are important to you as Ottawa residents and city-goers.
.
This is part of our ongoing summer tour, where we are meeting with folks outside of Toronto to get a sense of the various LGBTQ* needs and experiences that exist across Ontario. Past visits have included Hamilton, Peterborough, Thunder Bay, Sudbury, and Cambridge-Kitchener-Waterloo.
.
To recap, then:
.
— We will be at PTS from 1:00 to 3:00pm
— This weekend, on Saturday, July 14, 2012.
— Location: 251 Bank Street, Suite 301, Ottawa.
Special thanks go out to PTS for graciously hosting us.
(Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/441163049251056)
.
We hope to see many of you there!
.
Alana & the rest of the Queer Ontario Steering Committee
.
__
.
If you cannot make it to this meet-and-greet, please consider filling out and/or circulating the Queer Ontario Pressing Issues Survey:

http://queerontario.org/2012/06/19/pressing-issues
.
 Also consider submitting material to the Queer Ontario Think Tank:
http://thinktank.queerontario.org/about
.
.

Categories: Assistance, Event Tags: ,

Queer Ontario at 2nd Annual 519 Volunteer Fair

April 15th, 2012 Comments off

.

Hi Everyone,
.
This is to report that Queer Ontario had a highly successful presence at the 2nd Annual LGBTQ Volunteer Fair put on by the 519 Church Street Community Centre.
.
Earlier this afternoon Research and Education Committee Chairperson, Alana Boltwood, and I staffed the Queer Ontario table which elicited the signing up of 56 new volunteers!  There was an exciting mix of ages, races, ethnicities, interests and skill sets matching the vibrancy felt in the room and at the event itself.  In addition to Toronto numerous were from other geographical areas including North York, Markham, Brampton, Oshawa, Ottawa, Ajax, New Lowell and Thunder Bay.
.
This is the 2nd year Queer Ontario has taken part and received such a great response.  Special thanks are extended to Queer Ontario Secretary, Martin Otarola, for setting us up with the needed material resources and Alana for joining me for the full event in representing Queer Ontario to potential volunteers.
.
We will soon be following up with each of these volunteers to see how best we can involve them in the important work of Queer Ontario.
.
Cheers,

.
Nick Mulé

Chairperson,
Queer Ontario
.

Transcending the Provincial: LGBT Liberationist Activism in Ontario – From CLGRO to Queer Ontario

September 1st, 2011 Comments off

A presentation given by Nick Mulé, Chairperson of Queer Ontario, at the We Demand: Sex / Activism / History in Canada Conference that took place in Vancouver, BC from August 25 to August 28, 2011.

Summary:
.
A mere three years and four months following the 1971 “We Demand” demonstration in Ottawa, the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Ontario (CLGRO) was founded. Very much based upon the principles of the “We Demand” document, over the next 34 plus years CLGRO was at the forefront of the lesbian and gay movement in Ontario. This paper examines how CLGRO was influenced by the “We Demand” action and how it in turn became an influential forerunner within the LGBT movement not only provincially, but nationally and internationally. Underscoring the work of CLGRO and its successor Queer Ontario is the politic of queer liberationism. As such, a queer liberationist perspective has and continues to distinguish the work of CLGRO and Queer Ontario. In a climate in which a neo-liberal, mainstreaming, assimilationist approach dominates both from within and without the LGBT movement, the work of queer liberationists is compounded and multi-layered requiring a critical discourse that questions and challenges on all fronts including within the movement itself. With the number of political LGBT groups decreasing across the country, and fewer and fewer of those remaining undertaking a liberationist agenda, the movement is at risk of sliding into a heteronormative and cisgendered worldview. Queer liberationists, as exemplified by CLGRO and Queer Ontario, through principled work based on the integrity of the original “We Demand” calls for change provide a progressive, alternative voice to the status quo, towards ensuring diversity both within LGBT communities and in broader Canadian society.
.
The PowerPoint Presentation: