During a time of intense uncertainty for queer people across Canada, activists recently gathered in Ottawa for a conference centred on how they will continue to support 2SLGBTQ+ people nationwide.
Together for Change, organized by The Enchanté Network, a national charity connecting and supporting 2SLGBTQI+ community organizations across Canada, saw attendees join both in-person and online. The three-day affair followed the mantra, “No movement about us, without you,” and was filled with networking, presentations, and brainstorming between some of the leading organizations supporting queer Canadians.
The organization’s Executive Director, Tyler Boyce, explained that during times of intense polarization, moments like Together for Change are crucial, allowing leaders to come together and find ways to support one another and the broader 2SLGBTQ+ community.
“Folks can feel as if they have partners in this work of social impact, and understand the strategies that are allowing us to take these messages of inclusiveness, of fairness, of equity, and be able to connect with different people,” Boyce told Queer & Now. “Learning how your partners are doing it is going to allow community organizations to take those learnings and apply them at home.”
These gatherings are important because they remind community organizers that while they work, they may at times feel endless, they are not alone in the fight.
“It is really important not to fall into the trap of feeling like we are facing these issues alone, but to lean into the vulnerability of explaining what the challenges that we’re seeing in our communities are,” he explained. “I think that when we lean into that space of vulnerability, we open the door for solutions to be able to enter the conversation as well.”
MEETING THE MOMENT: PROJECT 10
This is something echoed by Sandra Mouafo, executive director of the Montreal-based organization Project 10.
“When we are doing the work, we often… don’t have time to be reminded that we’re not alone in the fight, that we’re not alone in the work, that more people than we realize are doing the same thing in different corners of the country.”
The Montreal-based organization works to support 2SLGBTQ+ youth, addressing the unique barriers and challenges posed to this community.
“We’re looking at the intersections between language, minority and racialization, and so [we’re] thinking specifically about what it’s like to navigate the system that is already underfunded, that is already difficult to access for people that are born in the city or in the greater Montreal area,” the organization’s Executive Director Sandra Mouafo told Queer & Now.
This includes challenges like accessing public services, finding community, and navigating systems in a city where you may not speak the language. They also help racialized queer people navigate the nuances of cultural stigmatization of 2SLGBTQ+ people.
“There’s the additional cultural specificity of not being a white, queer person and what their experiences are like. So we have youth coming in saying, ‘I’m queer, but I come from a Muslim family, and I’m not sure exactly how to come out to them and how to find belonging,’” Mouafo explained.
These intersecting issues pose issues for young people exploring their identities and searching for labels that suit them.
“The reality is also that when you’re dealing with a lot of people that are maybe second-generation or first-generation [Canadian], they find belonging in communities that oftentimes force them to choose between their racialization or their queerness, and so they can’t really easily inhabit the totality of who they are.”
The executive director explained that the best care is always rooted in ensuring that the entirety of the person is taken into account when trying to care for them. However, the organization actively combats this by offering a variety of programming, as well as providing a space where individuals can be themselves, whatever that means.
Her advice for young people? Find your community, and hold them tight.
“That’s the thing that has saved my life more than once, having the right person show up at the right time. Whether it’s just to bring you a warm meal when you’re at the end of the day and forgot to eat, or just to remind you that you’re doing a good job and you’re doing work that can sometimes feel or be thankless in nature,” she explained.
“So, just finding your people will really remind you of what you’re doing it for, and also ground you in the root of who you are.”
THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNITY
Rainbow Railroad’s Head of Engagement, Latoya Nugent, explained that community is a crucial resource for our communities, especially during times of political crisis like this.
“Community is everything to a lot of us, more than housing and employment, because when you have community, those things will come,” Nugent told Queer & Now.
That importance is heightened for queer refugees, who experience nuanced, layered barriers created by cultural differences, government legislation, and sometimes, our own community.
“Refugees are also being scapegoated by many people across multiple sectors in Canada now, for a lot of the socio-economic challenges that the country is facing, despite being the most tax-compliant group of people,” Nugent shared.
“Community plays such an important role in the life of any queer person. Add racialized to that, add refugees to that, and it just compounds the importance of community for those individuals.”
Having come to Canada as a refugee from Jamaica in 2022, it’s a concept she’s well-versed in.
“I don’t know if I could thrive in Canada without community… because I’ve had people with me along the way from day one,” she explained, referencing colleagues she had met in Canada through previous work as a human rights defender.
MEETING THE MOMENT: RAINBOW RAILROAD
Rainbow Railroad is a global not-for-profit that helps 2SLGBTQ+ people facing persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics escape persecution
through direct support services, community organizing, movement building and grant making.
“One of the things that has emerged for us since November 2024 is how rapidly and abruptly the political climate has shifted in the U.S., and what that has meant for our work in the U.S., as well as our work in Canada, and some of our global work, because the narrative that’s emerging in the U.S. is being exported to other parts of the world,” Nugent explained.
The fallout impacts 2SLGBTQ+ communities, as well as organizations and service providers that were being supported by international assistance from the U.S., which has abruptly shrunk under the second Trump administration.
“The ripple effect is that we now have a situation where organizations are not able to deliver the same kinds of programs or services at the scale at which they were doing it before, or they can’t do it at all,” Nugent explained.
At the same time, funding is dwindling, and policies and legislation mean the need for support is only increasing.
“We are seeing a record increase in the number of requests for help we get from folks living in the U.S., for example, that had never happened in the history of Rainbow Railroad’s operations, and it only started happening post the 2024 general elections in the U.S.”
The domestic situation in Canada and the U.S. ripples throughout the rest of the world, leaving Rainbow Railroad on track to receive 20,000 requests for help in 2025.
“We’ve never had those kinds of numbers before, and a lot of that is driven directly and indirectly by what’s in the U.S.”
Read More
- ‘We’re not going anywhere,’ Thousands of activists turn out to Queen’s Park to defend 2SLGBTQ+ rights and freedom
- ‘They have found an unwelcoming space,’ Thousands of 2SLGBTQ+ refugee claimants and allies rally in Toronto for more government supports
- 300+ 2SLGBTQ refugees sought help in Canada last year. Here’s how one group is working to save others from persecution
She explained that, as one of the larger organizations in Canada supporting 2SLGBTQ+ communities, Rainbow Railroad’s team feels as though it has a responsibility to ensure that they can fill gaps where they exist.
They’re meeting the moment through various carefully curated programs focusing on housing and livelihood assistance, community access funds, a refugee internship program, and community support teams, which include 2SLGBTQ+ volunteers mobilizing to create an extended family of support for newcomers.
“We want to see something like that grow in Canada, because we know the difference it makes when you have a few people who are laser-focused on ensuring that you find your way in Canada.”
During Nugent’s relocation journey, she says she had an informal community support team, composed of five women who ensured that she was able to create a life where she could thrive in Canada.
MEETING THE MOMENT: THE 519
One of the women was none other than Lisa Duplessis, the director of programs and community services at The 519, a community centre based in Toronto’s Church and Wellesley area. The centre offers a host of different programs for the queer community, including providing a week’s worth of prepared meals for unhoused people, to newcomer support programming for 2SLGBTQ+ people.
“I don’t want to blame it on any one thing, but I do believe that a great portion of that is due to the insurgency of politics that are led by people like Donald Trump, who are reversing rights,” Duplessis told Queer & Now.
“That has led to that sort of attitude, making people who have those beliefs emboldened to express them,” Duplessis said, explaining this is causing a direct fallout in her own advocacy work, which spans decades in both Toronto and Jamaica.
“As a Black woman, who is an immigrant, who is queer, I have three strikes in most people’s viewpoints. There are three things about me that people feel threatened by, and so I face a great deal of anti-Black racism, I face a great deal of xenophobia as a newcomer to Canada, and I face discrimination as a woman, period,” she explained.
But the current polarizing political climate also has an impact on the experiences of 2SLGBTQ+ people in Toronto.
“It plays out in us fighting each other. Oddly, there’s quite a bit of lateral violence in queer communities in Toronto right now, and I think across queer communities, and I think it’s because we are tricked into having to choose our areas of advocacy and fight each other,” she explained.
“It’s important that I talk about the lateral violence, because this is a time when we need to band together. Because the revolution never happened. We were tolerated, and we need to work our way back to acceptance of who we are as a community, and the only way we’re going to do that is if we are unified and working together as a unified group.”
But lateral violence is not the only issue; there’s also a lack of opportunities to thrive.
“The queer community is [also] having less opportunity to thrive. Not just newcomer communities – established queer communities are seeing opportunities disappear or vanish or reduce because they have that [queer] identity,” Duplessis shared, adding that this is only heightened when you face additional marginalizations, like being Black or a woman.
But The 519 is no stranger to crises. Serving the community since 1972, the community centre boasts a suite of programming dedicated to 2SLGBTQ+ people. This includes Among Friends, designed for 2SLGBTQ+ refugee claimants, which sees 250 people attend in person every week, with another 1,000 people attending online. They also offer economic resiliency programs to help newcomers and the broader 2SLGBTQ+ communities access necessities like training for consistent employment, housing resources and social activities.
She urges other people to take up the fight for queer rights, including youth in the community.
“I urge them to look ahead. I urge them to join every effort they possibly can and to fight for their own rights and dignity. I know that many of you thought that this fight was ending. It was done. We’ve done this before,” she explained.
“Some of the things we fought for 20 years ago are again in threat. I urge them to fight, to not ever give up, to imagine a world where they are free and with liberty to be who they are and to express themselves who they are.”
But, she feels hopeful, with more youth getting involved in community organizing to ensure that the world’s fires, particularly around queer and trans people, get extinguished.
The Enchanté Network
So, what’s next for the network hosting the conference? Boyce explained that Enchanté is currently focusing on the modernization of the Employment Equity Act, which is meant to include protections for vulnerable groups, including people from Black and 2SLGBTQI+ communities.
“So, our priority at the Enchanté Network is to turn this promise from the Liberal government into actual legislation that will be able to modernize the federal Employment Equity Act,” he explained.
“So, we’re really focused on making sure that queer and trans people have jobs and that queer and trans people are contributing and able to contribute to this economic recovery in Canada.”
Another big priority for the network is sector strengthening. He explained that his team wants to make sure that frontline queer and trans communities have the funding and resources to be able to do the work needed to support their communities.
“So, through our programs like Funders Connect, we’re able to connect frontline organizations with foundations and resourcing opportunities that they might not be aware of, and also connect foundations and funders with queer and trans organizations that they might not be aware of,” he explained, adding that this is a way the network can ensure this liberation work continues.
Boyce also shared a reminder for queer communities feeling defeated during these times of crisis: creative solutions are the key to a better future for us all, and in the words of Audre Lorde, “revolution is not a one-time event.”
“Every movement has gone through governments that don’t see the value of human rights or social impact work, but it is in the ingenuity and creativity of how we approach those problems that we can chart a better future,” Boyce explained. “Remain hopeful, remain connected to that legacy of change makers and stand in the truth that we are the change makers of today.”
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