LGBTQ

Flanked by Coun. Carl Jensen (left) and Coun. Zeb King, Mayor Ryan Windsor cuts a ribbon July 20 to open the rainbow crosswalk near Bayside middle school. (Wolf Depner/News Staff)

LGBTQIA2S+ community receives signal of support from Central Saanich

Rainbow crosswalk at Bayside follows painting of benches at other area schools

 

Black Press was among the organizations taking place in the 2022 Victoria Pride Parade, the first in-person parade after two year of online celebrations. (Black Press Media/Facebook)

Greater Victoria marches for Pride on new parade route

First in-person parade after 2 years of online celebration saw tens of thousands of spectators

 

Toronto-based graphic designer Dylan Horner is shown in this undated handout photo. Horner says a lot of the marketing campaigns he’s come across during Pride month make him cringe. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Dylan Horner *MANDATORY CREDIT*

Corporate Pride campaigns are back. But advocates want more than ‘rainbow washing’

Public displays of support need to be backed up by action in other 11 months of year, say advocates

 

FILE - This image released by Disney/Pixar shows character Buzz Lightyear, voiced by Chris Evans, left, and Alisha Hawthorne, voiced by Uzo Aduba, in a scene from the animated film “Lightyear,” releasing June 17. The United Arab Emirates on Monday, June 13, 2022, banned the upcoming Pixar animated feature “Lightyear” from showing in movie theaters amid reports that the film includes a kiss between two female characters. (Disney/Pixar via AP, File)

United Arab Emirates bans Pixar’s ‘Lightyear’ from showing

Animated Disney movie includes a female character kissing her female partner

FILE - This image released by Disney/Pixar shows character Buzz Lightyear, voiced by Chris Evans, left, and Alisha Hawthorne, voiced by Uzo Aduba, in a scene from the animated film “Lightyear,” releasing June 17. The United Arab Emirates on Monday, June 13, 2022, banned the upcoming Pixar animated feature “Lightyear” from showing in movie theaters amid reports that the film includes a kiss between two female characters. (Disney/Pixar via AP, File)
LGBTQ supporters wave their flags to show support for students going to school at East Wiltshire School in Cornwall, Prince Edward Island on Monday June 14, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Morris

Police say Canadian threatened to commit mass shooting at Florida LGBTQ event

Canadian authorities have charged 17-year-old suspect with threatening to commit a mass shooting

LGBTQ supporters wave their flags to show support for students going to school at East Wiltshire School in Cornwall, Prince Edward Island on Monday June 14, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Morris
Greater Victoria has the highest proportion of trans and non-binary folks in Canada, home to about one million people who self-identify as LGBTQ2+. Shown is the crowd from the 2018 Victoria Pride parade. (Photo courtesy of Victoria Pride Society)

LGBTQ2+ community of 1 million in Canada continue to face serious obstacles

LGBTQ2+ Canadians three times more likely to report being assaulted in 2018

Greater Victoria has the highest proportion of trans and non-binary folks in Canada, home to about one million people who self-identify as LGBTQ2+. Shown is the crowd from the 2018 Victoria Pride parade. (Photo courtesy of Victoria Pride Society)
CFUV announced its Queer Histories and Futures project, funded by the Government of Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program. (Pixabay)

UVic campus radio launches program to boost digital literacy, intergenerational connections in queer community

Meetings for CFUV’s Queer Histories and Futures project will begin in mid-June

CFUV announced its Queer Histories and Futures project, funded by the Government of Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program. (Pixabay)
A sneak peak at some of the items that will be in a draw basket at the very first Vanderhoof Pride event. (Kjerstina Larsen/Facebook)

B.C. community to hold first official Pride event in its history

Vanderhoof Mayor Gerry Thiessen plans to attend the event to promote inclusivity

A sneak peak at some of the items that will be in a draw basket at the very first Vanderhoof Pride event. (Kjerstina Larsen/Facebook)
Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Friday, May 6, 2022. A year since the federal government announced a fund for organizations making sexual and reproductive information and services more available, advocates say those funds have not yet been released. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

$45M sexual, reproductive health fund not yet released a year later: advocates

Health Canada says it has signed nine contribution agreements

Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Friday, May 6, 2022. A year since the federal government announced a fund for organizations making sexual and reproductive information and services more available, advocates say those funds have not yet been released. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
A giant rainbow flag is carried on Robson Street during the Vancouver Pride Parade in 2017. A new report out of UBC suggests the lives and health of LGBTQ youth in B.C. are improving. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)

Health, lives of LGBTQ youth in B.C. improving but not yet equal: report

UBC report shows positive signs between 2008 and 2018

A giant rainbow flag is carried on Robson Street during the Vancouver Pride Parade in 2017. A new report out of UBC suggests the lives and health of LGBTQ youth in B.C. are improving. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)
Kara Nystrom, a contender for Miss Health and Fitness 2022, is possibly the first transgender woman to enter in the U.S. magazine contest. (Kiernan Green/News Staff)

‘A queer, feminine body against the world:’ A Victoria woman’s vision for Miss Health and Fitness

Kara Nystrom has entered a U.S. magazine contest that is soon open to voting

Kara Nystrom, a contender for Miss Health and Fitness 2022, is possibly the first transgender woman to enter in the U.S. magazine contest. (Kiernan Green/News Staff)
An artist’s rendering of a national LGBTQ monument is shown in a handout illustration. A national LGBTQ2+ monument — inspired by a dramatic thundercloud — is to be built in Ottawa by 2025. The winning design, featuring a silver mirrored mosaic interior inspired by a thunderhead cloud and disco balls, was unveiled today at an event attended by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Canadian Heritage

Design for national LGBTQ2+ monument inspired by thundercloud and disco balls

$8-million monument to recognize Canada’s history of institutionalized homophobia and transphobia

An artist’s rendering of a national LGBTQ monument is shown in a handout illustration. A national LGBTQ2+ monument — inspired by a dramatic thundercloud — is to be built in Ottawa by 2025. The winning design, featuring a silver mirrored mosaic interior inspired by a thunderhead cloud and disco balls, was unveiled today at an event attended by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Canadian Heritage
W.L. McLeod Elementary students in Vanderhoof spent a Thursday morning last June remediating the community’s new rainbow crosswalk that was recently damaged by a large burnout. (Photo by Aman Parhar/Omineca Express)

Vanderhoof moves to install surveillance cameras at rainbow crosswalk

The crosswalk has been repeatedly vandalized by drivers performing burnouts on it

W.L. McLeod Elementary students in Vanderhoof spent a Thursday morning last June remediating the community’s new rainbow crosswalk that was recently damaged by a large burnout. (Photo by Aman Parhar/Omineca Express)
Someone Like Me co-directors and partners Sean Horlor, left, and Steve J. Adams. (Photo courtesy of Grady Mitchell/National Film Board of Canada)

Saanich-raised filmmaker’s doc melds struggles of gay asylum seeker, his sponsors

Sean Horlor’s Someone Like Me plays at the Victoria Film Festival on Feb. 5

Someone Like Me co-directors and partners Sean Horlor, left, and Steve J. Adams. (Photo courtesy of Grady Mitchell/National Film Board of Canada)
Britanny Vis, executive director of the Maritime Museum of BC, is seeking input from queer, trans and two-spirit individuals willing to share their marine stories for use in the upcoming Queer at Sea exhibit. (Black Press Media file photo)

Victoria museum puts call out for maritime stories from B.C.’s LGBTQ2S+ community

Queer at Sea exhibit launches at the Maritime Museum in May

Britanny Vis, executive director of the Maritime Museum of BC, is seeking input from queer, trans and two-spirit individuals willing to share their marine stories for use in the upcoming Queer at Sea exhibit. (Black Press Media file photo)
A blood donor clinic pictured at a shopping mall in Calgary, Alta., Friday, March 27, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Canadian Blood Services eyes removing sexual orientation-based donation restrictions

In most of Canada, men who have sex with men can donate only if they have abstained from sex

A blood donor clinic pictured at a shopping mall in Calgary, Alta., Friday, March 27, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Port Alberni’s first rainbow crosswalk was installed a few years ago on Fourth Avenue at Argyle Street, connecting city hall with the Capitol Theatre. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

Suspects own up to damaging Port Alberni rainbow crosswalk

Pair deny any intended message in separate Port Alberni incidents from August and September

Port Alberni’s first rainbow crosswalk was installed a few years ago on Fourth Avenue at Argyle Street, connecting city hall with the Capitol Theatre. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
Stacey Chomiak’s queer, illustrated, young-adult memoir ‘Still Stace: My Gay Christian Coming-of-Age Story’ is being released on Oct. 19, 2021. (Jenna Hauck/ Chilliwack Progress)

B.C. author says being gay and Christian is OK

Stacey Chomiak’s memoir aimed at LGBTQ youth makes peace with faith community and queer community

Stacey Chomiak’s queer, illustrated, young-adult memoir ‘Still Stace: My Gay Christian Coming-of-Age Story’ is being released on Oct. 19, 2021. (Jenna Hauck/ Chilliwack Progress)
Kelowna drag queen Jenna Telz performs during a show at the Friends of Dorothy Lounge on Oct. 1. (Aaron Hemens/Capital News)

Creating Queens: Kelowna’s Indigenous drag queens use their platforms to inspire

Two local drag queens have helped pave the way for nearly 30 drag performers

Kelowna drag queen Jenna Telz performs during a show at the Friends of Dorothy Lounge on Oct. 1. (Aaron Hemens/Capital News)
Victoria sing songwriter Jeremy Sinclair released his debut music video “Hey, how ya been” in July, drawing inspiration from his performing arts training and miscellaneous items he found around the house. (Courtesy of Jeremy Sinclair)

Victoria artist combines songwriting with performance art in debut music video

“Hey, how ya been” explores self-acceptance as a queer artist

Victoria sing songwriter Jeremy Sinclair released his debut music video “Hey, how ya been” in July, drawing inspiration from his performing arts training and miscellaneous items he found around the house. (Courtesy of Jeremy Sinclair)