Parents, Families and Friends of and Gays

June 2014 Newsletter #43 www.torontopflag.org [email protected]

TORONTO PFLAG VISION NEXT SUPPORT MEETINGS

Toronto PFLAG is a charitable organization that Wednesday speaks for a more accepting Canadian society by providing support, education and resources to all August 6, 2014 people who wish to grow in their understanding of sexual and gender diversity. 7:30 p.m.

Toronto PFLAG actively assists in the recognition Kimbourne Park and growth of , , bisexual, , United Church transsexual, two-spirit, intersex, and 200 Wolverleigh Blvd., questioning persons, and their families and Toronto, ON M4C 1S2 friends, within their diverse cultures and societies.

Toronto PFLAG Brunch 2014 Toronto PFLAG Brunch 2014

That same week Marla and I added board member Michael Ain, my daughter Amy O’Reilly and A message from your President Oakwood Collegiate Vice Principal Tripta Uberoi at BMO for a special presentation. BMO has been July 11, 2014 a great partner with Toronto PFLAG sponsoring both our new website and our poster campaign. World Pride 2014 At this event, BMO pledged another $10,000 to support our work in schools. Well! That was beyond our wildest expectations. Next, Toronto PFLAG participated in the first ever Throughout June, Toronto PFLAG was inundated Interfaith Fair at Metropolitan United Church. It with worthy invitations and opportunities. From was a lovely afternoon of spiritual programming companies wanting us to help them launch their and talented performers. Lots of visitors stopped own Pride celebrations, to schools wanting to focus by the Toronto PFLAG table. on diversity, to churches wanting to celebrate Pride through interfaith gatherings, to theatrical and Once again Pepsico asked us to help them launch musical shows. their Pride week, which we did in partnership with Matt Petersen from Pride at Work. Pride at Toronto Pride has to be congratulated for putting it Work has done some terrific research, which we all together and for pulling it off. They have set a will work into our own presentations. Mount very high standard for others to follow. Sinai invited us to their Pride Launch and this time we were next to ACAS (Asian Community Toronto PFLAG also set a new standard for June. AIDS Services). In addition to sharing our story We kicked off the month with the Big Four bowling with Mount Sinai employees we learned all about tournament where we were the beneficiaries. the services ACAS offers the Asian LGBTQ Bowlers from Deloittes, KPMG, Ernst & Young and community in Toronto. PWC raised over $7,000 for us. We cannot thank them enough for their generosity. Finally, just before Pride weekend, I did my first live Twitter event with Toronto Police Services’ Irene Miller and I spent a day with the staff and Victim Services staff on the subject of coming out. students of Bala Elementary School. We saw It was fantastic. heartwarming performances and heard some of the best questions from students ever. The visit was All that was just the lead up to Pride weekend unforgettable. where we had record crowds at our booth and Brunch and stood and marched for a record Vice President Marla Green and I participated in number of hours and blocks. “Redefining the Family”, a day- long symposium put on by the Ontario Public Service at Ryerson and June is when we call on all of our volunteers to webcast across Ontario. A few days later, Marla and help out. You came out in record numbers and we I went to Sapient Micro to help kick off their very cannot thank you enough. It was great to see first Pride week. Sapient later sent us a generous familiar faces and meet new ones too. Turns out donation and immediately set about tweeting the nicest people have LGBTQ kids and siblings! #raisethepride (see below). Happy World Pride.

Anne Creighton

#RaisethePride

In late May, Toronto PGLAG was approached by three young men who work for JWT advertising. Earlier in the year, they had heard about the higher incidence of suicide in LGBTQ youth and wondered if there was some way they could use their creative skills to call attention to homophobia.

The result was #Raisethe Pride: a rainbow flag that was controlled by tweets from around the world. A computer tracked certain words and phrases that were both homophobic and positive. So, for example, “fag” lowered the flag and “pride” raised it.

The flag itself was on an 18-foot flagpole atop the Churchmouse Restaurant in the Village.

The creators asked Toronto PFLAG to sponsor the project and together we launched it and promoted it on TV and in the papers. It was a great way to draw attention to the scourge of homophobic slang and a fun way to battle it. Saying something positive or tweeting #RaisethePride would make the flag go up.

Away from the Village, an animation of the flag on www/raisethepride.ca tracked the flag in real time and showed the tweet that was controlling the flag. It was mesmerizing.

Thank you again to Santiago, Braeden and Patrick for all your hard work in making this project such a success.

First ever Pride Night celebration at ROGERS CUP

Tennis Canada is proud to announce its first ever Pride Night celebration, which will be held during Rogers Cup presented by National bank in Toronto this August!

The world’s best men’s tennis players, including past champions Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Canada’s best ever singles player, Milos Raonic, return to Rexall Centre on York University campus from August 2-10.

The Pride Night event will take place the evening of Wednesday, August 6, and $5 of every Pride ticket sold will be donated to PFLAG Toronto (Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays).

Tickets for the reception and tennis event can be purchased by phone or on-line using promo code: PRIDERC14. For tickets only to the tennis portion of the event, use code PRIDE14.

Here is the schedule of events for the evening:

 4:00 p.m.: Main gate open for entry

 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.: Private reception inside the National Bank Premium Series Club lounge (appetizers and wine will be served)

 4:30-5:00 p.m.: mix and mingle/networking opportunity with other guests

o 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.: screening of documentary “Queen’s at Court” profiling tennis in the LGBTQ community . Director of documentary, Shiv Paul will be at the screening . Check out the trailer by clicking here

 6:30 p.m.: Tennis action begins on Centre Court!

Trans March 2014

Toronto PFLAG Brunch 2014

Pride Parade 2014

Pride Parade 2014

Thank You Volunteers

Wow! World Pride 2014 was an incredible celebration where our city was able to showcase to the rest of the world our Pride in our community. Toronto PFLAG was proud to be a part of many of the week’s activities, and we were especially proud of all of the volunteers who gave of their time and skills to help make our presence at Pride such a success.

A huge thank-you to those who helped load the van, those who showed up in the early mornings to set up our booth, those who welcomed people throughout the day, those who stayed at the booth during our Brunch and during the Parade (which allowed others to attend both events), and especially to those who stayed after two very-long days, to help dismantle the booth and move everything back to the office for storage!

We value ALL of our volunteers, and realize that we couldn’t do what we do without you! Thank you for your help, co-operation, enthusiasm and generosity. The spirit of World Pride 2014 will not be forgotten.

Marla Green, Toronto PFLAG Volunteer Co-ordinator

THANK YOU

Toronto PFLAG wants to offer a heartfelt ‘Thank You’ to the wonderful people who have recently made a donation to Toronto PFLAG. Your donations are allowing us to continue offering our 24/7 Telephone Support Line, our Monthly Support Meetings and our ongoing outreach and community support.

If you would like to help, you can make a donation through the secure servers at CanadaHelps.org (charitable donation receipts are issued automatically), and if you wish you can specify that your donation remain anonymous, or you can choose to honour someone or a special occasion.

Or you may send a cheque to Toronto PFLAG, 200 Wolverleigh Blvd., Toronto, ON, M4C 1S2. (charitable donation receipts will be issued for amounts of $20+)

DONATE NOW http://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=s70090

Charitable Registration BN: 891493348RR0001