trailblazers

We at the CCGSD have chosen these 12 remarkable individuals from the hundreds of Canadians that have acted as a voice for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and advocated for equal rights and freedoms. Although known acts of injustice experienced by Canada’s 2SLGBTQIA+ people go as far as the 1600s, there is much to be unearthed and shared. Our goal is to showcase these struggles, protests and injustice that have happened within the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Canada and add these missing chapters into our history. We want to celebrate the lives and work of these individuals through our exhibition and continue to collaborate with the community in highlighting many others for years to come.

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SVEND ROBINSON

Source: Canada’s first openly gay MP, addresses an audience three days after publicly coming out on Feb 29, 1988. By Philip Hannan/Xtra

One of the longest-serving members in the House of Commons serving with the NDP in Vancouver, BC., Svend Robinson is noted as the first member of the Canadian Parliament to come out as gay while in office. He was the only openly LGBT member of the Canadian House of Commons until Bloc Québécois MP Réal Ménard came out in 1994. A large part of his work was to attempt to add sexual orientation to the equality rights section of the Canadian Charter, when it was under development in the 1980s. Although he was unsuccessful, sexual orientation was eventually included under the equality rights, thanks to the Supreme Court and later legislation.

SHARP DOPLER

Source: Ottawa two-spirit activist Sharp Dopler after taking part in Day of Pink festivities in the Senate on Parliament Hill on April 12, 2017. Credit: Dylan C Robertson/Xtra

For over 20 years, Sharp Dopler has been an educator, community worker, and activist. Sharp is originally from Newfoundland and is of Aniuyunwiya/Meskwakie/Ashkwakie and Irish descent. Sharp has been an advocate for topics including but not limited to: Cultural Competency, History of Indigenous People in Canada, Decolonisation, HIV/STI’s/Hep C, Healthy Sexuality, Anti-Oppression, and Anti-Bullying. Sharp Dopler is honoured to be considered a Traditional Knowledge Keeper and carrier of Ceremony in the Ottawa community as well in other communities. Sharp uses this traditional knowledge and Indigenous ways of being in the world to inform how the work is done

RICHARD FUNG

Source: The ArQuives National Portrait Collection.

Born in Trinidad, Richard Fung is a Toronto based video artist, writer, public intellectual and theorist. He holds a diploma from the Ontario College of Art, a degree in cinema studies and an MEd in sociology and cultural studies, both from the University of Toronto. He is a Professor in the Faculty of Art at OCAD University, teaching courses in Integrated Media and Art and Social Change. His work is comprised of challenging videos on subjects ranging from the role of the Asian male in gay pornography to colonialism, immigration, racism, homophobia, AIDS, justice in Israel/Palestine, and his own family history. In 2015, he received the Kessler Award from CLAGS: Center for LGBTQ Studies at the City University of New York for “a substantive body of work that has had a significant influence on the field of LGBTQ Studies”.

KENT MONKMAN

Source: Miss Asia in progress. Photo by Ryan Van Der Hout. 2015.
Image courtesy of Kent Monkman

Kent Monkman is an award-winning Canadian artist of Cree ancestry who is well known for his provocative reinterpretations of romantic North American landscapes. His glamorous gender fluid alter-ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle appears in much of his work as a time-travelling, shapeshifting and supernatural being who reverses the colonial gaze, upending received notions of history and indigenous people. His art portrays important themes such as colonization, sexuality, loss, and resilience. (Source: kentmonkman.com)

SYRUS MARCUS WARE

Source: Syrus Marcus Ware Profile Image (Twitter) https://twitter.com/syrusmarcusware

Syrus Marcus Ware is a Vanier Scholar, a visual artist,
community activist, researcher, youth-advocate, and educator.
Syrus’ work explores the spaces between and around identities;
acting as provocations to our understandings of gender,
sexuality, and race. For 14 years, Syrus has worked with
Blackness Yes! to produce Blockorama (the black queer and
trans stage at Pride), and other related events throughout the
year. Syrus is also a founding member of the Prison Justice
Action Committee of Toronto and is a core-team member of
Black Lives Matter-Toronto. (Source: syrusmarcusware.com)

DR. LEE AIRTON

Source: Dr. Lee Airton Profile Image (Twitter)  https://twitter.com/leeairton

Dr. Lee Airton is an Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies in Education at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. In 2012, they founded They Is My Pronoun, a Q+A-based blog about gender-neutral pronoun usage and user support with over 30,000 unique visitors in 2017 alone. Dr. Airton is also the founder of the No Big Deal Campaign, a national social media initiative that helps people show support for transgender peoples’ right to have their pronouns used. In recognition of their advocacy work, Dr. Airton received a 2017 Youth Role Model of the Year Award from the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity.

Dr. Airton’s first book, Gender – Your Guide: A Gender-Friendly Primer on What to Know, What to Say and What to Do in the New Gender Culture offers practical steps for welcoming gender diversity in all areas of everyday life, available from Adams Media (An Imprint of Simon & Schuster). (from leeairton.com)