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This Pride Month, what’s first and foremost in our minds and hearts at the Alliance for Healthier Communities is the safety and security of each and every 2SLGBTQ+ person’s life, and the peace of every community across the planet. We’ve seen that around the world, across Canada, and in many places here in Ontario, simply flying the Pride flag openly is making people targets for violence. 

As we gather this month to celebrate inclusion and belonging with 2SLGBGTQ+ communities across Canada, we acknowledge that people are engaged in, as always, an act of courage, protest and solidarity in the face of intolerance, hate, ideologically-driven populist homophobia. The ignorant and noxious propaganda of 2SLGBTQ+ hate often takes the form of anti-trans hate, thinly veiled behind fear-mongering and stigmatization. It is the same hate and systemic discrimination that 2SLGBTQ+ communities have fought against for survival over many decades, stretching back centuries. We can see clearly that this hate is resurgent, finding new strength in numbers among people that are often intolerant of other marginalized people, include Black, Indigenous, other racialized people, newcomers, women, and people with disabilities.

We cannot and will not stand idly by.

Canada needs leaders NOW who will stand up against anti-trans and anti-2SLGBTQ+ hate, not cower and make excuses for “differing views.” 

We need political parties and leaders in every community who are UNIVERSALLY committed and who support the human rights of ALL 2SLGBTQ+ people, of ALL ages. 

We need governments across every province and every municipality who understand the increased risk – of homelessness, of mental health issues, of violence – that 2SLGBTQ+ youth face, and who make culturally safe primary health care accessible to everyone who needs it.

We need to stand by 2SLBTQ+ people and communities that are under attack. We need to do it because lives are at stake. It is possible to build a true society of inclusion and equity that go beyond tolerance and acceptance. There’s a lot of work to do to maintain and advance the progress made in the decades since homosexuality was removed from the Criminal Code of Canada.

At the Alliance’s 2024 conference, Co-Designing the Future of Primary Health Care, our Community Health Champion Award was presented to Rainbow Health Ontario, the groundbreaking program created at Sherbourne Health Centre that has been a literal life-saver for thousands of 2SLBTQ+ people and their loved ones. Rainbow Health Ontario has also taught and is teaching other organizations (including Alliance members) how to provide care and become life-affirming places for all 2SLGBTQ+ people.

Here’s where you can learn more about accessing these trainings for yourself and your organization.

Each and every Alliance member is committed to this vision of inclusive health care for 2SLGBTQ+ people across the entire health system. In 2022, members passed a resolution that “all Alliance members, in order to provide safe and affirming care for 2SLGBTQ+ clients & community members, commit to provide training for their Boards and staff, at the appropriate levels for governance and operations/service delivery respectively, ensuring that the training reflects the needs and experiences of BIPOC 2SLGBTQ+ communities.” In addition, the Alliance and its members continue to advocate for, and be leaders in the field of collecting sociodemographic data in culturally safe ways, in help inform the gaps and needs emerging for 2SLGBTQ+ populations, including across intersecting identities.

The Alliance and its members will continue to learn about, to advocate for, and to stand in solidarity with 2SLGBTQ+ communities. As we stand this month against hate and intolerance in all its forms, we highlight the importance as well of speaking out and acting against racism, against stigma faced by people who use drugs, and people with mental health issues. We stand with newcomers and with people living on low incomes. We know that 2SLGBTQ+ identity is itself intersectional, and we know the discrimination and hate directed at people disproportionately impacts some more than others.

This Pride, as we take a stand – in parades, at parties and in other public places – we stand in protest, alongside every other 2SLGBTQ+ person and ally – in calling for an end to all violence against people for who they are, who they love, how they live and express their gender. And we call on our leaders to strengthen policies, programs and services that help Two-Spirited, Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Trans, Queer (questioning, and other gender identities and orientations) people be safe, healthy and well in our province and country.

We wish everyone a safe and happy Pride.

This month, we mark and celebrate Indigenous Peoples History Month and Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21. This is a time to find deeper understandings and recognize the rich and diverse histories, cultures, knowledges and artistic landscapes of Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island.

The Alliance for Healthier Communities and its members will also spend time this month reflecting on Indigenous health and wellbeing, on where we are in our work towards reconciliation and providing culturally safe and appropriate care, and what we see as pressing issues to work on together – including advancing Indigenous health in Indigenous hands as a primary goal.

The Alliance continues to work in solidarity and cooperation with the Indigenous Primary Health Care Council (IPHCC) and its members, as we jointly advocate for Indigenous health in Indigenous hands across the health and social services systems. This advocacy includes the groundbreaking innovations that integrate culturally safe approaches of Indigenous healers and Elders with the best of data-informed Western approaches to medicine. We believe an Indigenous-led approach is essential for improving health outcomes across the health system for Indigenous people and communities. This would be supported through a Provincial Indigenous Integrated Health Hub which we are strongly advocating for in partnership and support of IPHCC. We firmly believe, alongside IPHCC and Indigenous primary health care leaders across Ontario, that this framework would enable a process of health reform respecting Indigenous autonomy, self-governance, and decision-making.

Advocacy for clean drinking water in every community is ongoing. We will continue to work in solidarity with Indigenous health leaders and communities to ensure a healthy present and future for current and future generations. We’re thinking about what it means to act on the words of waterkeeper and activist Autumn Peltier, who told Alliance conference delegates earlier this month that land back is a primary message, and it means more than land, it also means cultures, languages, livelihoods, ways of knowing and being. When it comes to programs you see at an Indigenous-led primary health care organization or team, or the structures for governance and accountability for those teams, that’s where the concepts of land back can truly start to take shape and become real for people living in communities. Climate change is having disproportionate impacts on Indigenous people, and there is risk of those worsening if action is not taken. Land, water, air and soils are left unprotected, and seen solely as resources to be exploited towards “growth” as measured by colonial ways and knowledge. We must find ways to mitigate impacts on Indigenous people already marginalized by intergenerational trauma and colonialism’s impacts.

We’re listening to commentators like Professor Kate MacDonald, who writes: “As people gather to celebrate, it’s vital that this celebration is connected to the recognition of ongoing settler colonial violence and commitments to solidarity.” What does it mean to commit to being “in solidarity”? First off, we think it means recognizing and understanding the roots of trauma created by settler colonial and white supremacist violence, including the history of Residential Schools, the Sixties Scoop, and all policies of the government used to assimilate people and communities and destroy families and cultures. It means understanding that the history of colonialism and colonial policies is directly connected to the ongoing policies and mindsets at all levels of government that criminalize poverty, dissent, homelessness, mental health issues, addictions, and hopelessness among youth. These policies, many of which continue to find support among various levels of government, continue the oppression of colonial violence on Indigenous people and communities.

We have a chance to act now. As we celebrate Indigenous history and look to the future this month, as we try to build bridges to better understand cultures and communities that colonial forces sought to destroy, we must also seek out the seeds of community. We must work to plant the seeds we can learn from deeply rooted trees of Indigenous knowledge and practices, to learn from the experiences of communities who have healed their people for millenia, and find new seeds of community between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and organizations to heal the space between our nations, our relationships. 

From small gatherings and open-houses across the country, to learning about culture, practices and history on our own, to finding ways for our organizations to work together better, reconciliation happens in small, quiet actions we take every day, all year long. It’s also when small quiet actions come together into louder voices when change happens, too. This is a month for the quiet and the loud, for the present and the future. This is a month to find more beautiful seeds and plant them together, for ourselves, our children and the future of the land we share together.

Wishing everyone a very happy Indigenous Peoples Day and a reflective and action-oriented Indigenous History Month.